THE HIGHEST CULTURE 
AND CHRISTIANITY 



JAMES WILUAM LOWBER I 




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J W. LOWBER 



The Highest Culture 
and Christianity 



BY 



JAMES WILLIAM LOWBER 

M. A., LL.D., Ph. D., Sc. D., etc.; F. R. A. S., 
F. R. G. S., etc, ; Member of Royal Societies* 
Club, and Member of the Authors' Club, London 




CINCINNATI 

THE STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY 



Copyright, 1915 
The Standard Publishing Company 






SEP 21 1915 



CI.A411619 



^ 



To 

Maggie Pleasant Lowber. M. A.. 

my faithful and devoted wife, b this work 
inscribed by the author. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Preface to the Revised and Enlarged Edition 5 

Introduction 11 

PART L— THE HIGHEST CULTURE IN THE 
STUDY OF NATURE. 

I. Religious Hints from the Study of Nature.. .. 31 

II. Order and Adaptation in Nature 55 

III. Man's Place in the Syst'^m of Nature IZ 

IV. Nature and Theism 93 

V. Nature and a Future State 117 

PART II.— THE HIGHEST CULTURE IN THE 
STUDY OF REVELATION. 

I. The Miraculous Element in the Bible 143 

II. Typology 170 

HI. The Prophetical Element in the Bible 203 

IV. The Supernatural Character of Christ 249 

V. Paul at Athens 277 

PART HI.— THE HIGHEST CULTURE AND THE 
BIBLE. 

I. The Highest Scientific Culture and the Bible. . . 293 
II. The Highest Philosophical Culture and the 

Bible 325 

HI. The Highest Historic Culture and the Bible... 344 

IV. The Highest Literary Culture and the Bible. . . 367 

V. The Highest ^Esthetic Culture and the Bible. . . 383 

3 



4 CONTENTS. 

VAGB 

PART IV.— THE TENDENCIES OF MEN OF 
CULTURE. 

I. The Platonic Philosophy and Christianity 397 

II. The Aristotelian Philosophy and Christianity. 426 

III. The Lockian Philosophy and Christianity.... 436 

IV. The Kantian Philosophy and Christianity. . . . 451 
V. Bacon and the Inductive Method 468 

VI. Charles Darwin and Evolution 488 

VII. The Skepticism of the Nineteenth Century 

and its Relation to Men of Culture 511 

PART v.— CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION. 

I. Homer and the Dawn of Greek Civilization. . 547 
II. Dante and the Dawn of Modern Civilization. 560 

III. Savonarola and the Renaissance 584 

IV. Michael Angelo and Modern Art 593 

V. Shakespeare and the Bible 607 

VI. Goethe and the Highest German Culture 630 

VII. Mendelssohn and the Influence of Music 

upon Civilization 644 

VIII. Robert Browning and the Victorian Age 658 

IX. Alfred Tennyson and the Age of Reform... 682 



PREFACE TO THE REVISED 
AND ENLARGED EDITION 

This preface to the revised and enlarged 
edition should always be read in connection 
with the preface and introduction of the first 
edition, which is also printed in the present edi- 
tion. They are very essential to a proper under- 
standing of the book. When the author speaks 
of Daniel, Jonah and Isaiah as the authors of 
the books bearing their names, he does not, in 
any sense, exclude the inspired prophet-editors 
of a later date. He has his own special views 
on this subject. 

The Book of Daniel was a new departure 
from the literature of the Hebrews; it is the 
earliest example of Apocalypse, and, in fact, the 
only example found in the Old Testament. 
Like prophecy, the Apocalypse has to do with 
the future. It differs from prophecy in the 
fact that it has nothing to do with the moral 
condition of the times in which the prophet 
wrote. The Apocalyptist regarded the future 
without speaking special words of warning. He 

5 



O PREFACE. 

delivered his message in prose and not in the 
lyric style of the prophet. 

The position of Dean Farrar and others 
that the Book of Daniel is a religious novel 
w^ritten in the times of the Maccabees is objec- 
tionable for the following reasons : ( 1 ) Nebu- 
chadnezzar was totally unlike Antiochus Epi- 
phanes. (2) The historic facts in the life of 
Nebuchadnezzar do not correspond with those 
of Antiochus. (3) The conduct of the great 
Nebuchadnezzar towards Daniel was entirely 
different from the conduct of Epiphanes to- 
wards the Jews. (4) The influence of the 
Book of Daniel can only be understood on the 
ground that it is a record of real events. (5) 
The fact that one portion is written in Chaldee 
and the other in Hebrew is against the idea of 
a religious novel. 

It appears to me that both the traditionalists 
and critics have gone to extremes in the dis- 
cussion of the genuineness and authenticity of 
the Book of Daniel. The golden mean is the 
safer position. Some of the critics have cer- 
tainly gone to great extremes. T have always 
been interested in the writings of Dean Farrar, 
but it appears that he has lost his head in the 



PREFACE. 7 

discussion of the Book of Daniel. He appears 
to surrender completely to the infidel Porphyry. 
If this position is correct, then Daniel should 
be dropped from the sacred canon as Luther 
wanted to drop the Book of James. 

I am inclined to the view that Daniel wrote 
separate tracts; that in some cases he wrote in 
Hebrew for the Jews alone, and in others in 
Chaldee for the people at large." After this a 
prophet-editor arranged all in the form of one 
book, and thus gave unity to the work. This 
position explains why one portion was written 
in Hebrew and the other in Chaldee. I am not 
dogmatic, but this position appears to me the 
most reasonable. 

The skeptic has objected to the Book of 
Daniel on the ground that one portion is written 
in Hebrew and the other in Chaldee. It appears 
to me that the very objection itself is an evi- 
dence of the genuineness of the book. It 
accords with all that is known of Daniel. He 
did not leave his native country until he was 
old enough to be perfectly familiar with the 
Hebrew ; the rigid training he underwent at the 
Court of Babylon was sufficient to make him 
familiar with the Chaldee language. The unity 



8 PREFACE. 

of the book points to the unity of its author- 
ship, although it may have been afterwards 
arranged by a later inspired editor. 

The predictions in the Book of Daniel are 
minute, and have been so accurately fulfilled 
that skeptics have claimed that it was written 
after the events it described had taken place. 
They have, however, been routed from this 
position, and the best critics now agree that 
Daniel has its right place in the sacred canon. 
To the Christian, the inspiration of Daniel is 
well established: for Jesus, in Matt. 24:15, 16, 
alludes to Daniel's predictions in his own proph- 
ecy in the destruction of Jerusalem. 

The Book of Jonah does not mention its 
author, but the prophet evidently left a manu- 
script of his marvelous career. Canon Driver 
says: "No doubt the material of the narrative 
was supplied to the author by tradition, and 
rests ultimately upon a basis of fact. No doubt 
the outlines of the narrative are historical, and 
Jonah's preaching was actually successful at 
Nineveh (Luke 11:30-32)." 

Jonah was the son of Amittai, and proph- 
esied during the reign of Jeroboam II., king 
of Israel (2 Kings 14:25). The names Jonah 



PREFACE. y 

and Amittai occur nowhere else in the Old Tes- 
tament, and the Book of Jonah can consequently 
refer to no other person. The word Jonah 
means dove, and, while the dovelike element in 
his nature sometimes forsook him, he was nev- 
ertheless a prophet of the Lord. The light in 
which Jonah places himself makes it evident 
that he was the author of the narrative. No 
other Jewish writer would have placed a prophet 
in such an unfavorable light. Jonah does not 
hesitate to place before posterity his own mis- 
takes, and to show the fearful consequences of 
disobeying the command of God. While Jonah 
was doubtless the author of the narrative, a 
later prophet may have placed it in its present 
shape. We should remember that there was a 
school of the prophets, and that they very care- 
fully guarded all sacred literature. I am fully 
convinced that the Book of Jonah is entitled to 
its proper place in the sacred canon. Our 
Saviour endorsed the book as having an his- 
torical basis. In some sense Paul makes nearly 
all the Old Testament parabolic; so we may 
regard the Book of Jonah parabolic history, and 
this is the golden mean between extreme views 
on the subject. 



10 PREFACE. 

I regard the Book of Isaiah very much as I 
do Goethe's "Faust." The first part was writ- 
ten in early Hfe, and the last part when he was 
an old man. A later prophet-editor may have 
arranged it all in its present shape. Dr. George 
Adam Smith relates a pleasant incident that 
occurred between himself and the great evan- 
gelist, D. L. Moody. He was lecturing for Mr. 
Moody, and in one of his lectures spoke of the 
two Isaiahs. Mr. Moody at once said: "Why 
two Isaiahs? I find it difficult enough to con- 
vince the people of even one." 

Part Fifth, of this edition, is entirely new, 
and it will doubtless greatly add to the value 
of the work. The author has been greatly 
encouraged with the success of "Cultura" thus 
far. It has been highly commended by leading 
scholars in both Europe and this country. It has 
been used as a text-book in some colleges and 
universities — especially in the Senior and post- 
graduate classes. It has also been used in liter- 
ary and scientific clubs for both men and 
women. Still further, "Cultura" has been quoted 
by leading characters in works of fiction. The 
author and publishers confide in its future. 



INTRODUOTIOIT. 



I am satisfied that the Bible is such a book 
that man would not have made it if he could, 
and he could not have made it if he would. It 
was certainly given by inspiration of God. Con- 
sider carefully the following facts: (1) Human 
nature has always tended to idolatry; but the 
Bible strictly teaches monotheism, and subordi- 
nates everything else to this belief It thus rises 
above human nature, and changes the whole cur- 
rent of society. Jehovah was not simply the 
God of one nation, but the Judge of all the 
earth. Even Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar and 
Sennacherib were responsible to God, and were 
punished for their sins. (2) The Bible unites 
morality and religion. Human nature has been 
much disposed to separate them. It is said that 
even banditti of Italy will make the sign of the 
cross when they hear the church bells ring. I 
have known men who appeared to be very re- 
ligious, and there was no difference between 

giving them ten dollars and lending it to them. 

11 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

This shows the weakness of human nature, but 
it is directly the opposite to the teaching of the 
Bible. The Bible never separates morality from 
religion. (3) The morality of the Bible is 
peculiar in itself, and it rises far above the ten- 
dencies of human nature. Humanity, forgive- 
ness of enemies, putting away evil thoughts, are 
virtues peculiar to the Bible. The Jews made 
void the law of God by their traditions, because 
the law of God was above them, and they tried 
to bring it down to themselves. The morality 
of the New Testament was so far above human- 
ity, that human nature corrupted the teachings 
of Christ and his apostles. Mr. Spurgeon was 
certainly right when he declared that the devil 
and human nature are in the way of all reforms. 
(4) The character of Christ rises far above the 
moral tendencies of humanity at the time of his 
advent. The humility, the modesty, the self- 
denial, the unreserving submission to wrong, on 
the part of Jesus, are moral traits which the 
Jews never would have invented. The Gentile 
never could have invented the moral character of 
Christ, for it was too Jewish for him. It could 
not have been invented by the disciples, for they 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

were extremely slow in learning the true charac- 
ter of their Master's mission. If the character 
of Jesus is only a painting, it is passing strange 
that the world has taken it for a reality. Very 
few persons will ever be convinced that it is not 
a reality. The miracles have been so interwoven 
in the narrative that the world has taken them 
for historic reality. This is not the case with 
other religions; for the critic is no more im- 
pressed with heathen mythology, so far as reality 
is concerned, than he is with the fables of ^sop. 
He no more believes in heathen miracles than he 
believes the lions and asses of ^sop's Fables 
could talk. (5) The reverence of the Jews for 
the Old Testament is worthy of consideration. 
The Jews would certainly have sought out a for- 
gery with as much zeal as did Diocletian in his 
crusade against the copies of the New Testa- 
ment. (6) Christianity rose far above human 
nature in its aspirations to universal dominion 
without the use of force. Mohammedanism, 
which came six centuries afterwards, is in direct 
contrast to Christianity in these respects ; and it 
shows the tendencies of human nature. All 
that is good in Mohammedanism was largely 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

borrowed from the Bible. (7) Christianity rises 
above the tendencies of human nature in its 
principles of universal toleration. (8) The 
Bible gives a correct view of human nature, 
which is an evidence of its divine origin. Hu- 
man nature is not apt to condemn itself, but the 
Bible pictures man just as he is. (9) The teach- 
ing of the Bible on the future state is, in many 
respects, the direct contrast of the teaching of 
other ancient books on the same subject. The 
Bible gives simply a spiritual view of the future, 
and it does not appeal to the passions of men. 
Those who are immutably holy will be immor- 
tally happy in the future state. 

The careful student of the philosophy of his- 
tory can not otherwise than be a believer in the 
divine authority of the Bible. In fact, the 
greatest historical students have been much im- 
pressed with the wonderful coincidences that are 
to be found between the Bible and history. 
Study carefully the following, if you can not re- 
gard them as anything more than coincidences : 
(1) The Jews are a wonder to the historian. 
While other ancient nations have lost their iden- 
tity, they remain the same still. Read the twenty- 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

eighth chapter of Deuteronomy in the light of 
history, and a flood of light will flow into the 
mind. This chapter alone will prove the divine 
legation of Moses. The way in which the Rus- 
sians are treating the Jews at this time is a ful- 
fillment of the predictions of the prophets. (2) 
The predictions of the prophets concerning 
Jesus, and their historic fulfillment in him, are 
certainly very strong proofs of the inspiration of 
the prophets and the divine mission of Jesus. 
It is not really surprising, after all, that the cele- 
brated Rochester was converted to Christianity 
by a careful study of the fifty-third chapter of 
Isaiah. This is the chapter used by Philip in 
convincing the Ethiopian officer of the divine 
claims of Jesus. (3) The destruction of Jerusa- 
lem, in harmony with the prediction of Jesus, is 
another historic fact in the way of any historian 
who might be skeptical. In Luke xxi. 24, you 
will find the language of Jesus, and its literal 
fulfillment can not be questioned by any candid 
historian. It has been in process of fulfillment 
ever since the destruction of Jerusalem. (4) 
The progress of Christianity was given in pro- 
phetic outline by Christ and his apostles long 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

before its fulfillment in history. The epistles to 
the seven churches in Asia Minor make known 
their destiny long before its fulfillment as now 
recorded upon the pages of history. The Man 
of Sin, described by Paul, is making history day 
by day. (5) It must be acknowledged by the 
philosopher of history that the Bible occupies an 
exceptional position in the world, and that it is 
superior to all other books, (a) It does ap- 
pear strange that while the civilization of some 
of the greatest nations of antiquity only re- 
mains in mystic characters, that of the Hebrews 
is in a language the grammar and syntax of 
which is as regular and intelligible as those of 
the Greeks and Romans. (6) While modern 
discovery is banishing superstition from the 
World, it is constantly confirming the teaching 
of the Bible. It clearly tends to establish the 
fact that the Bible was given by inspiration of 
God. Nearly everything else the Jews have 
written has been left in obscurity, but the Bible 
still towers above all other books. (c) The 
martyrs of the Bible make it an exceptional 
book. It is useless to compare them to the sol- 
dier martyrs of Islam, (d) The Bible differs 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

from all other books in that it claims universal 
acceptance for its principles ; and yet it does not 
teach that they should be propagated by force. 
How different from Islam ! (e) The Bible has 
produced the writing of more literature by far 
than has any other book. Think what it has 
done for our language, and also for the German. 
We may truly say in the language of Carlyle : 
" There never was any book like the Bible, and 
there never will be such another." Prof. Hux- 
ley, in speaking of the Bible in education, says : 
" I have been perplexed to know by what prac- 
tical measures the religious feeling, which is the 
essential basis of conduct, is to be kept up with- 
out the use of the Bible." Dr. Johnson put a 
little girl from him as stupid, because she had 
never read " Pilgrim's Progres'?." What do you 
think of men and women who have never read 
the Bible? A proper consideration of the 
writers of the Bible would greatly tend to 
strengthen the faith of many. Ponder well the 
following facts, and you will be wiser and better : 
(1) The unity of the Bible is marvelous, when 
we consider that its writers wrote in different 
ages, and that it bears a distinct idiosyncratic 



18 INTEODUCTION. 

impress of many minds. It can be compared to 
a great orchestra where the instruments are in 
unison, but plainly distinguishable from one an- 
other. The Bible as plainly points to Christ as 
its center, as the stars of the solar system point 
to the sun. The unity of the Bible is a strong 
argument in favor of its divine authenticity. (2) 
Rationalistic critics are now making special at- 
tacks upon the writers of the Bible. The Pen- 
tateuch is now a special object of attack. It is 
claimed that Moses was not the author, and that 
its writer or writers lived after the Babylonian 
captivity. I urge the following objections to 
this view: (a) The author of the Pentateuch 
was a witness of the events recorded. (6) 
Egyptologists are constantly confirming events 
described in the Pentateuch, (c) The language 
of the Pentateuch is pure Hebrew, and differs 
from the language used by the writers during 
and after the captivity, (cf) If some post-cap- 
tivity writer had been the author of the books 
attributed to Moses, his name would certainly 
be known, (e) The Jews too carefully guarded 
their sacred books to have received works writ- 
ten by others, and imposed upon the people as 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

the writings of their great law-giver. (/) The 
prophets would have rebuked and exposed any 
priest who would have dared to attempt such a 
thing, (g) No one can well question the fact 
that the writings of Moses were revised after the 
captivity, but this only tends to confirm the 
authorship of Moses. These skeptical critics 
also make a persistent attack upon the Book of 
Isaiah. They claim that the last half of it was 
written by some unknown prophet of the Exile. 
We find these objections to this position : (a) If 
such a prophet had lived, his name would cer- 
tainly be known, for he would have been one of 
the greatest of the prophets. (6) The pre-exilic 
authorship is confirmed by passages from Jere- 
miah and Zephaniah. (c) These contested chap- 
ters are written in the style of the great proph- 
et, (d) The early chapters form a prelude to the 
grandest part written by the prophet in his old 
age. (3) The style of the Bible writers affords 
evidence of the divine authenticity of the book. 
A large portion of the Bible is historic ; and we 
may, on account of the dramatic element in it, 
call it historico-dramatic. It is peculiar in the 
fact that the dramatic element is brought out by 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

a mere statement of facts. In the case of La- 
ban, we look a moment at the facts, and see at a 
glance, without further explanation on the part 
of the writer, that he was a perfect muckworm. 
The Hebrew parallelisms are also peculiar. 
They are like double entry in book-keeping, a 
kind of balance to prevent mistake. The facil- 
ity with which the Bible can be translated into 
all languages is another remarkable peculiarity. 
The same thing can not be said of the Koran 
and other sacred books. Sir Wm. Jones, the 
greatest of Orientalists, pronounced the style of 
the Bible superior to that of all other books. 
There is a grand march and rhj^thm in the 
poetry of the Bible that is very wonderful. 
When Dryden wanted to turn the majestic blank 
verse of Milton into rhyme, the great poet told 
him to " tag " it if he desired. The poetry of 
the Bible can be turned into prose, but it will 
not suffer tagging. Milton and Watts tried the 
first Psalm, and the production is tame, com- 
pared to the Psalm itself. Luther tried the 
forty-sixth Psalm, and made a failure of it. 
The solemn march and cadence of the rhythm 
of the ninetieth Psalm is lost by turning it into 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

rhyme. The Bible is further noted for its 
force, sublimity and pathos. There are very 
few writers who are truly pathetic; and the 
greatest of these frequently interweave the 
pathos of Scripture, and appeal to man's relig- 
ious emotions. 

I endeavor to make it plain, in Cultura, that 
the Bible is in harmony with the system of na- 
ture, and is perfectly adapted to the wants of 
man. In fact, nearly every objection that can 
be urged to the Bible can also be urged against 
the system of nature. If nature is admitted to 
be the work of God, then the analogy between 
the Bible and the system of nature has great 
force. Carefully reflect upon these points : (1) 
In the system of nature we find gradual devel- 
opment, and in the Bible we find the same 
thing. The origin of man is beautifully de- 
scribed in the Book ot Genesis, and the greatest 
scientists in the world find it in harmony with 
nature. Whence came man ? What is man ? 
and Whither is he bound ? are the great prob- 
lems with which both nature and revelation 
deal. The Bible answer to these questions 
is strong proof to my mmd of its divine 



22 INTEODUCTION. 

inspiration. (2) In God's revelation to man 
in the Bible we find a perfect adaptation to 
man's wants. The patriarchal age was suited 
to the infancy of humanity ; the Jewish age to 
his childhood, and the Christian age to perfect 
manhood. In God's providence, men have been 
found for emergencies ; in God's revelation to 
man, the prophets and apostles were qualified for 
their special work. God at the proper time 
spake to man by his Son. (3) Man is the inter- 
preter of nature ; and as the Bible is by the same 
author, man must also interpret it. Bacon 
says : " Man is the minister and interpreter of 
nature." We must lay aside all prejudice in the 
study of these great volumes. It sometimes 
puzzles me to see man's opposition to revealed 
truth ; but we find an illustration of this in the 
saying of Harvey, that he could not get a man 
over forty to believe in the circulation of the 
blood. The Bible is a microcosm, and the same 
care and candor should be given to its study 
that is given to the study of the system of na- 
ture. 

Rationalistic critics seem to have a special an- 
tipathy to the Book of Jonah. In the body of 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

this work we have considered this question 
somewhat minutely, but wish to say a few things 
just here. It appears somewhat strange to the 
present writer that a number of professed Chris- 
tian writers take the position of skeptical writers 
on this subject. Our Saviour, in Matt. xii. 39- 
41, certainly refers to it as having an historical 
basis. If Solomon and the Queen of Sheba 
were historic in the days of our Saviour, the 
same thing can be said of Jonah. We urge 
these objections to the rationalistic position : (1) 
It is designed simply to get rid of the super- 
natural in the book. (2) If it were nothing but 
an allegory, we can not account for Jonah's 
prayer of thanksgiving in the second chapter. 
(3) A writer of fiction would not have selected 
a real prophet, whose actual home is mentioned 
in the Bible. (4) The book would not have 
found its way into the sacred canons if it had 
only been a work of fiction. (5) Our Saviour's 
reference to the book clearly shows that it was 
founded upon actual history. In one sense 
nearly all the Old Testament may be considered 
parabolic, for Paul certainly makes it such ; so 
we may consider the Book of Jonah parabolic 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

history, and this is the golden mean between ex- 
treme views on the subject. The object of the 
Book of Jonah seems to have been three-fold : 
(1) to show the penitence of the prophet ; (2) 
to show the penitence of the Ninevites; (3) 
the main object was to show that God is the 
God of all nations, and not of the Israelites 
alone. Skeptics have much trouble with what 
they call the whale story. If they are able to 
consult the original, they will find some relief. 
The Hebrew terms tan and tannin mean simply 
a sea monster. The same thing can be said of 
the Greek cetos. The white shark was common 
in the Mediterranean, and is thought to have 
been the monster that swallowed Jonah. Dr. 
Pusey in the introduction of his Commentary on 
Jonah, relates the following : " A natural 
historian of repute relates : ' In 1758, in 
stormy weather, a sailor fell overboard from a 
frigate in the Mediterranean. A shark was 
close by, which, as he was swimming and crying 
for help, took him in his wide throat, so that he 
forthwith disappeared. Other sailors had leaped 
into the sloop to help their comrade while yet 
swimming ; the captain had a gun which stood 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

on the deck discharged at the fish, which struck 
it so it cast out the sailor which it had in its 
throat, who was taken up alive and little in- 
jured, by the sloop which had now come up. 
The fish was harpooned, taken up on the frigate, 
and dried. The captain made a present of the 
fish to the sailor who, by God's providence, had 
been so wonderfully preserved. The sailor went 
around Europe exhibiting it." 

In concluding this introduction, I want to 
say a few words in reference to the inspiration 
of the Bible. In studying this subject, I see 
that many confound the inspiration of the 
Bible with the question of its supernatural 
origin. Christianity might be true and of divine 
origin, and yet its writers not inspired. We 
accept the facts of history, and yet the histori- 
cal writers are not inspired. Inspiration is 
important, but it is not everything, as some 
writers seem to think. Even uninspired men 
might be competent witnesses to the facts prov- 
ing the divinity of Christ. According to Green- 
leaf on Evidence such certainly could be the 
case. " What think ye of the Christ ?" is the 
ftindamental religious question of the world. 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

and it is much more important than even the 
question of inspiration. I am glad that Dr. 
Briggs, whatever may be his mistakes, empha- 
sizes the Christology of the Bible. Some even 
great writers do not seem to discriminate be- 
tween inspiration and revelation. Revelation is 
the way in which the original writers obtained 
the things they wrote, while inspiration refers to 
the assistance they received in imparting this 
revelation. The following are the strongest 
proofs to my mind of the inspiration of the 
Bible: (1) The character of the books them- 
selves, to which we have already referred. (2) 
The supernatural endowment of the apostles. 
(3) The promise of Christ to the apostles. (4) 
The testimony of the writers themselves. Paul 
definitely affirms inspiration on the part of the 
sacred writers (II. Tim. iii. 16, 17). A number 
of theories of inspiration have been advanced, 
but none are satisfactory. The automatic theory 
makes man simply a machine in the hands of 
the Holy Spirit. The anthropological theory 
gives the sacred writers no more inspiration 
than had Milton and Dante. The psychological 
theory claims that the thoughts of the writers 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

were suggested by the Holy Spirit; but that these 
thoughts were always expressed in the language 
of the writers themselves, without any assistance. 
This does not harmonize with the promise of 
Christ to his apostles, in which they are prom- 
ised assistance in how they were to speak, as 
well as in what they were to say. It is proba- 
ble that the true scientific theory of inspiration 
is not yet understood. I can not believe that 
any theory can be accepted by the conscientious 
student of the Bible which excludes either the 
natural, the providential, or the miraculous ele- 
ments. That there are portions of the Bible 
which required nothing more than the natural, 
is probable; for God would certainly use the 
natural so far as it was sufficient. But to claim 
the natural was sufficient for the production of 
the whole Bible, contradicts the plainest teach- 
ing of the Book. Inspiration is claimed on the 
part of the sacred writers, and if we accept them 
as honest witnesses, we must admit that they 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. 
It is evident that the highest culture of the 
world is tending in the direction of a supernat- 
ural religion. I know that true culture is 



28 INTRODUCTION. 

opposed to any religion that is unnatural, and 
that it will forever banish all superstition ; but 
it will clearly establish the fact that God h»s 
revealed his will to man. John Stuart Mill, 
one of the greatest of thinkers, was certainly 
right when he declared that if there is a God, it 
is probable that he has revealed his will to man. 



©HE I7IGHBST SULTUI^B IN JTHB 
SiPUDY OP liAHlUl^B 



CULTURA 



PART FIRST. 



THE HIGHEST CULTURE IN THE 
STUDY OF NATURE. 



(gHAPiPBI^ I. 



Religious Hints from the Study op 
Nature. 

There is much opposition on the part of some 
religious teachers to science and philosophy. I 
heard a preacher, not long since, state in the 
pulpit that it was wrong to reason on any sub- 
ject ; that the food should be handed directly to 
the people. He was in favor of their eating it 
raw. From such preaching as that a congrega- 
tion will never get more food than it can digest, 
either raw or cooked. I am of the opinion that 



32 CULTURA. 

ministers should select many of their illustra- 
tions from the Bible ; that inspired volume 
abounds in illustrations ; but it is foolish to 
oppose that knowledge which is so essential to 
a proper understanding of the Bible. Some say 
we care nothing about theory, we only want 
right practice. There can be no practice with- 
out theory. False practice always results from 
false theory. It is necessary to know the cause 
in order to understand how to manage the effect. 
When a watch is out of fix, the watchmaker 
does not simply turn the hands, but he finds out 
the cause of the difficulty, and then remedies it. 
Carlyle claimed that he could tell what a man's 
religion was by knowing his position in refer- 
ence to the origin of things. When you find a 
nation materialistic in philosophy, you will find 
it the siime in religion. The various theories of 
fatalism taught by French theologians were 
derived from the philosophy of Condillac and 
from Mohammedan ideas, appropriated by the 
French philosophers. 

The history of an individual is frequently tho 
history of a nation. The same peculiarities 
that are observed in the youth of the indi- 



CULTURA. 33 

vidual are also observed in the youth of a 
nation. The child directs its entire attention 
to the outer world ; it is anxious to know the 
causes of the things about it. Well do I 
remember, when only four or five years old, 
the number of hours I spent in trying to learn 
the origin of the beech tree under which I 
played. In the early history of Greek philoso- 
phy, attention was given only to the outer world. 
The great problem with them was this : " What 
is the underlying element from which all things 
have come?" One philosopher claimed water 
as the primary element ; another, air ; another, 
fire ; and still another, the essence of things. 

The soul, by early scientists, or natural phi- 
losophers, was regarded as material, being com- 
posed simply of air. Materialism belongs to 
the infancy of science, and not to its manhood. 
Science now has sufficient age to rejoice its 
manhood, and put away childish things. It is 
sad to think that there are great men in the 
scientific world who look so much at the ma- 
terial that they have not yet seen beyond it. 
Philosophy reached manhood in Socrates, Plato, 
and Aristotle, who taught the importance of 



34 CULTUBA. 

studying mind as well as matter, and finding 
the permanent beyond the fleeting and changing 
things of this world. I have frequently heard 
it said, by both scientists and religionists, that 
the Bible was not given to teach men science. 
I somewhat doubt the absolute correctness of 
the statement. In the very beginning of the 
Bible we have a scientific statement of the 
origin of things. We find there the fundamental 
element from which all things have sprung. 
There are statements in the first of Genesis that 
progressive science of three thousand years Is 
now making plain. The Hebrew word for God 
is Elohe, but in the Bible it was Elohim that 
created the heavens and the earth. The plural 
form there used was entirely correct, for it de- 
noted three persons in one nature; but this 
could not be understood until the mission of 
the Christ and the Holy Spirit into this world. 
When Moses speaks of the creation of light he 
uses the word " aor," which is the word in the 
Hebrew language for electricity. Thus was 
modern science anticipated. If there is no sci- 
ence in the Bible, why is there none among the 
naticms which have it not ? 



CULTURA. 35 

Ancient scientists believed in the eternity of 
matter ; modern science teaches that matter had 
an origin ; so the argument from cause to effect 
is placed entirely into the liands of religious 
teachers; for matter which possesses inertia 
could not have created itself. All nations have 
connected cosmogony with religion ; science has 
shown the incorrectness of their ideas of crea- 
tion ; so their religious books have been super- 
seded. The Bible cosmogony is shown to be 
correct by modern science ; so the Author of the 
Bible must have anticipated such science. Law 
passes as a golden chain through the entire sys- 
tem of nature. The naturalist himself can not 
understand whence all this order comes. How 
can matter with its universal property of inertia, 
be in constant motion ? There must be some- 
thing in the cause to account for the effect. 
Law in the physical universe intimates a higher 
law in the moral ; and it gives a very strong 
hint of the existence of the great Lawgiver, 
who is the ultimate cause of all these things. 



36 CULTURA. 

THE WONDERS OF THE EARTH. 

With all the scientific achievements of the age, 
man's knowledge of the world is very limited. 
He is surrounded with mysteries that the united 
wisdom of men can not fathom. He truly finds 
tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
sermons in stones, good in many things, and 
evil in a number of things. Soon after the 
formation of the earth's crust, trees began to 
grow. The first germ has puzzled materialistic 
philosophers. Only give them a start, and they 
get along well with the theory of development ; 
but they who reject miracles can not get a start. 
The tree owes its origin to supernatural power, 
and every tree speaks of the greatness of the 
Creator of this world. In creating the trees 
God had in design their beauty to satiate the 
aesthetic part of man's nature, as well as fruit 
to satisfy his appetite. Adam was placed in the 
Garden of Eden not only to satisfy his appetite 
and rest under its shady bowers, but also to cul- 
tivate it and keep the trees beautiful. After 
man's banishment from Paradise, he always 
cherished a peculiar reverence for green and 



CULTURA. 37 

beautiful trees. Nearly all the ancient worship- 
ers bowed down under the shade of trees. It 
was from the burning bush that Moses heard 
the voice of God. Heaven will contain at least 
one tree ; for on either side of the river will be 
found the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds ol 
fruit, and the leaves of the tree will have heal- 
ing virtues for the nations. 

God has left many books in the running 
brooks. The river, next to the mountain and 
sea, is the most strongly marked feature of the 
earth's surface. Rivers are the life currents of 
the globe. Man has always regarded them of 
so much importance that they have frequently 
been deified. To the ancient Egyptians the 
Nile was sacred; and the modern Hindoo wants 
to spend the last moments of his life in the 
eacred Ganges. Rivers have directed the tide 
of emigration ever since the dispersion of man- 
kind. Nineveh, Babylon and Rome were all 
located upon great rivers. The river is a bless- 
ing to man in this world, and it will be a bless- 
ing to him forever. From the throne of God 
will proceed the crystal waters of the river of 
life. 



38 CULTURA. 

For a number of years I have given some 
attention to the study of the great rivers of 
America. Niagara especially has always im- 
pressed me with the most inexpressible grandeur. 
It is the channel by which the waters of four 
of the great lakes flow toward the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence and the ocean. The five great Amer- 
ican lakes contain one half of the fresh water 
upon the globe. They are formed in terraces. 
The Lake Ontario terrace is two hundred and 
thirty-two feet above the level of the sea ; and 
this descent is overcome by the rapids of the St. 
Lawrence. Once, in going from the Thousand 
Islands to Montreal, I had the privilege of pass- 
ing over these rapids. An old Indian pilot was 
necessary to safely guide the vessel over these 
dangerous waters. Lake Erie is situated three 
hundred and thirty-three feet above Lake Onta- 
rio, and one half of this difference is overcome 
by a single leap of Niagara Falls. The rapids of 
the river to Lake Ontario overcome the rest. 
The Falls of Niagara, on the Canadian side, are 
more than one hundred and fifty feet in height ; 
and on the American side they are one hundred 
and sixty-two feet. Just above the falls, at 



CULTURA. 39 

Goat Island, the river expands so as to give the 
falls a greater width than the usual width of 
Niagara River. From the suspension bridge 
below, there are obtained excellent views of the 
falls. 

The Niagara formation belongs to the Silur- 
ian age ; but the Falls of Niagara are of com- 
paratively recent date in geological history. A 
small force will accomplish in a long time what 
a great force will accomplish in a short time. 
The drippings of water in time formed the stal- 
actites of Mammoth Cave. Oxygen expends 
the same amount of heat in destroying a house 
in one hundred years that is expended in burn- 
ing up one in two hours. We learn from Mr. 
Huxley that the Sphynx of Egypt is nearly 
covered up by the sand of the desert ; and that 
the neck is partly cut off l)y the erosive action 
of fine sand blown against it. By erosion Nia- 
gara has washed its way from Lake Ontario to 
its present position. It is thought by authori- 
ties that it recedes at the rate of about a foot per 
year. This is, doubtless, about the average. Some 
years it recedes several feet, and others it does 
not appear to recede at all. According to Her- 



40 CULTURA. 

schel, in thirty thousand years it will reach 
Lake Erie ; and as that lake is only one hundred 
and twenty feet deep, it will drain it, and a 
great chasm will remain to mark the ruins of 
time — if indeed this world lasts so long. So we 
see that even the great Niagara is running 
down, and, like everything else of this world, 
will have an end. I do not see how any one can 
look upon the grandeur of Niagara, and not be 
convinced of the intelligence of the Final Cause 
of such wonderful phenomena. 

There are sermons in stones. They contain 
discourses which can at all times be heard. The 
written law was given to Moses upon tables of 
stone. The ancients looked upon the rocks as 
holy, and hewed great temples out of the solid 
rock. These stone-carved temples are the great 
monuments of the East. The persecuted bene- 
factors of mankind have found a refuge from 
their enemies by fleeing to the rocks; and all 
can find a refuge from trouble and from their 
enemies in the Rock of Ages. " Upon this 
rock," said Jesus, " I will build my church, and 
the gates of hades shall not prevail against 
it.'' 



CULTURA. 41 

Jehovah, through natural agencies, has carved 
out great temples even far under the earth. I 
have visited nearly all the caves of note in 
America, and find the greatest of them all in 
Kentucky, my native State. The Mammoth 
Cave is ninety-five miles south of Louisville, and 
it is certainly one of the world's greatest won- 
ders. It is a subterranean empire, and has hun- 
dreds of streets and alleys. Some of them are 
as wide as one of the waterways of Venice, and 
others so narrow that you have to crawl through 
them. Several hundred miles of the cave have 
already been explored, and much work yet re- 
mains for the explorer. I have twice visited 
this great underground kingdom, and feel that I 
would be greatly benefited if I could spend 
many more weeks there. We do not give enough 
attention to the study of nature. A Bostonian 
once asked if it was always dark in the cave ; on 
being answered in the afiirmative, he declared 
that he would not have come so far to visit it if 
he had not thought there was sunlight in it. 

The entrance to the cave is about one hun- 
dred and ninety-four feet above Green River. It 
is so near the banks of the river that any rise in 



4*2 CULTURA. 

the water of the river affects the water of the 
cave. The temperature of the cave is uniformly 
fifty-nine degrees. When the air outside is 
warmer than that within, the cave expires; 
when the air within is the warmer, it inspires. 
Both times that I visited the cave it was expir- 
ing. It holds its breath when the temperature 
inside is the same as that outside. In Mammoth 
Cave day and night are unknown; also the 
change in the seasons. The Dead Sea, the River 
Styx, Echo River, and many other things are of 
great interest in this underground temple. It is 
a fact that the fish are without eyes ; so nature 
harmonizes with the teaching of Jesus that it is 
either use or lose. I was very much impressed 
with what is called the Giant's Coffin. It is an 
immense rock forty feet by twenty, and from 
one position it very much resembles a large cof- 
fin. Near the coffin is the giant's wife and 
child. These figures upon the ceiling are the 
most striking in the cave. They are in a sitting 
position, and the giant seems to be handing the 
child to his wife. These figures are composed 
of black gypsum, formed on a white background. 
We can not conceive of a work of art without 



CULTURA. 43 

an artist ; so the wonderful work of art in the 
Mammoth Cave has for its ultimate cause the 
Great Architect of the universe. 

Job says: '^The earth shall teach thee.*' It 
is our duty to learn the lessons which the earth 
is ever prepared to teach. God made the earth, 
and filled it with riches and beauty, so as to 
render man as happy as he would be. When 
the father builds a house for his son, the grateful 
son will be delighted with the provisions the 
father has made for his welfare. We should be 
grateful to our Heavenly Father for the rich pro- 
visions he has made for our welfare. 

THE MYSTERIES OF THE SEA. 

The ocean is much older than the land Long 
before the Adamic ppriod, the dark blue ocean 
rolled over the face of the whole earth. It is 
the order of nature that the gaseous antedate 
the liquid, and the liquid the solid. Tn harmony 
with this law, the restless sea was in constant 
agitation long before there was any dry land. 
The ancestors of the inhabitants of the deep en- 
joyed life ages before the ultimate design of 
Jehovah in creation was at all developed. Jn 



44 CULTURA. 

the process of time, land under the western 
ocean emerged from its baptismal grave, and it 
was soon prepared for the abode of life. 

The great waters teem with life, and the re- 
sources of the sea are indeed marvelous. The 
pioneer can level the forest, and exterminate the 
animals that roam in it ; but man can not ex- 
haust the wealth of the sea. It was intended by 
the Creator that man should largely live from 
the ocean; for the most wholesome food that 
can be found is taken out of its waters. The 
microscope teaches us that even the sea-water 
itself is rich in animal life. The great water 
world, then, as well as the world of land, was 
designed for the welfare of man. 

The scenery of the ocean fills man with the 
greatest awe. Indeed beautiful is sunrise and 
sunset at sea, and the moon looks lovely above 
the great waters. 

Great and marvelous art thou, sea ! 

How majestic thou canst be ! 

And to thy right of dominion all agree. 

Indeed, monstrous dost thou appear ! 
How veracious to those that are near, 
When startling sounds they do hear. 



CULTURA. 45 

In thy restlessness, what is thy notion ? 
Is it to teach perpetual motion, 
Which, if found at all, is in the ocean ? 

How wonderful thou art at night ! 
And truly powerful in thy might. 
As if moved by agents beyond sight. 

The writers of the Bible were not of a sea- 
faring people ; yet they lived where they could 
behold the blue waves of the great Mediter- 
ranean. They could see the parting glory of 
the sun, as he went beneath the silver waters 
of the great sea. They could watch the western 
cloud, no larger at first than a man's hand; but 
continuing to enlarge until the whole heavens 
were blackened, and the waves rushed upon the 
rocks of Carmel and Lebanon with the fury of a 
maddened beast. The world of waters was to 
the Hebrews a great mystery; so the Bible 
writers frequently clothe their language in the 
sublimest drapery of the sea. "When we con- 
sider the fact that their only observation was 
from the shore, the accuracy of the Bible 
writers in their references to the sea is perfectly 
wonderful. The only way to account for their 
absolute correctness is the fact of their inspira- 
tion. 



46 CULTUKA. 

The great writers among the Greeks regarded 
the ocean as a waste. Their poets sang of the 
barren sea, and of the waste of waters. The 
writers of the Bible took exactly the opposite 
view. The golden age of the kingdom of God 
is described as being enriched with the abun- 
dance of the sea. The science of this age 
confirms the Bible view on the subject, in oppo- 
sition to the position of the learned Greeks. 
Without the ocean, the earth would be as barren 
as the rugged moon ; for the present condition 
of the atmosphere and fertility of the soil 
depend upon the waters of the great deep. 
Instead of finding the ocean a waste, we behold 
an economic arrangement on the part of the 
Creator. The psalmist is correct when he says 
that the waters go up by the mountains; for 
the sea is the source of the rivers, and not the 
rivers the source of the sea. The sun is the 
great engine to lift the oceanic waters into the 
air; the wind scatters them, and by the con- 
densation of cold they are brought to the earth. 

There are many important lessons taught us 
by the sea, but we will only call attention to 
three. (J) The goodness and benevolence of 



CULTURA. 47 

God is shown in the rich resources which he has 
placed in the ocean to satisfy man's physical 
wants. Without the sea, man could not live. 
(2) The waters of the deep are placed under 
such law as to indicate God's providential care 
of man. (3) The beauty and sublimity of the 
sea appeal to the highest elements in man's na- 
ture. I never felt more reverential than I did 
when I was permitted to gaze at the heavens 
from a steamer on the great deep. 

Thou dark blue ocean ! nothing sublimer than thee can 

be found ; 
For it is thee that makes the earth all around, 
And all the continents hear thy tempestuous sound. 

THE CLOUD WITH ITS BOW. 

There are but few things in the natural world 
of a more striking appearance than the clouds. 
In them we behold a great variety, which 
teaches us that the God of nature had in view 
beauty as well as usefulness. There is a great 
contrast between the nimbus and the cumulus, 
the stratus and the cirrus; yet in them all we 
find the elements of beauty and sublimity. In 
some there is more beauty and less sublimity ; 
and in others more of the sublime, and less of 



48 CULTURA. 

the beautiful, but in none are these elements 
wanting. Golden clouds anticipate the rising 
of the sun ; and when the king of .day retires 
beneath the western horizon, he is followed by 
gems of light and silvery wreaths. The beauti- 
ful stratus frequently continues all night, even 
unto the rising sun. 

There is something very mysterious about the 
clouds. Men know but little more about their 
balancings than they did in the days of Job. 
The latest authorities on the subject claim that 
science can not explain the causes which balance 
the clouds in the air. They are formed of 
water, and water, no difference how minute, is 
always heavier than the air. Yet floods, suffi- 
cient to fill the rivers and drench the earth, 
float over our heads, when the principles of our 
philosophy would bring them immediately to 
the earth. Job's inspiration is shown in his 
ability to ask the questions about the clouds, 
which even the wisdom of our day can not 
explain. " Dost thou know the balancings o^f 
the clouds V^ Job might have asked a hundred 
questions about the clouds which could not be 
in his day explained, but are now understood by 



CULTUKA. 49 

scientific men. He succeeded, however, in ask- 
ing questions which are not now understood. 
" Can any understand the spreadings of the 
clouds?" Clouds are formed by the conden- 
sation of moisture into vapor; but who can 
explain why this vapor marches about the 
mountain tops in perfect order without ever 
breaking ranks ? The sky is frequently flecked 
with billions of small clouds, yet they mingle 
not, and each preserves its identity. The clouds 
are guided by an infinite wisdom beyond a full 
comprehension of the finite. 

The Bible represents Jehovah as revealing him- 
self to man from the clouds ; so there is some- 
thing sacred about them. A pillar of cloud 
guided the Israelites from the land of bondage 
to that of liberty. In order that it might be a 
more perfect guide during the darkness of the 
night, it appeared as a pillar of fire. The voice 
which proclaimed Jesus the Son of God, on the 
Mount of Transfiguration, came out of a cloud. 
When our Saviour ascended to the throne of the 
universe, as he was separated from his disciples, 
a cloud received him out of their sight. When 
he comes in the glory of his Father with all the 



60 CULTURA. 

holy angels, he will come in the clouds of 
heaven. 

The cloud with its bow is as beautiful as the 
blushing maid in the presence of her lover. 
God has selected the most beautiful object of 
nature as the emblem of his covenant with man. 
While the cloud with its bow is an assurance of 
God's protection, by its beauty it also invites 
us up to that country where we can always 
behold the bow round about the throne of God. 
I would not like to live in a country where they 
always have a clouded sky. It would be a 
monotony very disagreeable to endure. Heaven 
is not without its clouds, for the rainbow round 
about the throne implies, of course, the exist- 
ence of clouds. The bow never appears except 
on the cloud. The dark background is essential 
to the presentation of the different colors of the 
rainbow. All the colors of the prism are con- 
tained in the beautiful and heavenly token of 
peace. When we look at the bow, we know 
that God also looks upon it, and remembers us. 
There is nothing sadder than to be forgotten. 
That is what made a mysterious council of the 
Middle Ages so terrible. Those who were con- 



CULTURA. 51 

demued by it had to be forgotten. The rainbow 
teaches that God always remembers us. 

On a silvery day, 

Above the horizon there did lay 

A beautiful rainbow ; which did unfold 

Its tinted pinions of gold 

To those that dwelt below. 

god's glory in the heavens. 

" The heavens declare the glory of God ; and 
the firmament showeth his handiwork'' (Ps. 
xix. 1). The early life and peculiar occupation 
of David made him acquainted with the aspect of 
the heavens. As a shepherd boy keeping his 
flocks on the hills of Bethlehem, he studied the 
stars and made them his companions. The 
country in wbich he lived possessed almost a 
cloudless sky ; and the heavenly orbs shone with 
a brightness far superior to that of northern 
climes. When he beheld the beautiful Venus as 
she arose above the mountains of Moab, and the 
blazing constellations in the eastern heavens, he 
exclaimed, " What is man that thou arl mindful of 
him ? or the son of man, that thou visitest him ?'' 

To all that dwell beneath the skies, 
The heavens do God's glory show; 



52 CTJLTURA. 

To the Maker of these orbs let praise arise, 
For from him all our blessings^ flow. 

The same bright orbs that now glit|;er in the 
midnight sky shone with equal luster upon 
Abraham ; they witnessed the destruction of 
Sodom, and the flight of Lot from the doomed 
city of the plain ; they beheld the great armies 
of Alexander as they marched forward to con- 
quest; they were the same when Rome reached 
the zenith of her glory as when a few little huts 
were built upon one of her seven hills ; great 
empires have arisen and fallen, but those heav- 
enly witnesses look down upon man the same as 
ever ; men may come and men may go, but they 
shine on forever. We do indeed know more 
about the heavens than did the ancients; but 
with all our increase of knowledge we can not 
count the number, nor the distance, nor the im- 
mensity of the worlds which God has placed 
throughout endless space. 

Astronomy is the oldest and most sublime of 
all the sciences. No record is needed in order to 
prove its ancient birth. Human curiosity is too 
great not to turn the eyes of man towards the 
silent orbs of the heavens. God has placed the 



CULTURA. 53 

elements of beauty and sublimity in man's na- 
ture ; and how can these be better satisfied than 
by bathing the very soul in the beauties which 
the Creator has placed above man's head. It is 
claimed by some that astronomy is not practical. 
That is a mistake ; for the most practical and 
important inventions have resulted from the 
study of astronomy. This important science 
cultivates reverence for God, for the very heav- 
ens declare his glory. It was unfortunate that 
the ancients changed the science of astronomy 
into astrology. It was ignorance and supersti- 
tion that made a religion out of the study of the 
stars. Those beautiful constellations became a 
mysterious and tyrannical power which ruled 
over men with a merciless destiny. To these 
orbs, which are intended for a blessing to man, 
even human sacrifices were frequently offered. 
Baal and Ashteroth were worshiped upon high 
places, and at times they corrupted the pure 
worship of Israel. The Persians erected their 
altars upon mountain tops, and kept their sac- 
rifices continually burning. The heavenly 
bodies were adored in the valleys of the Nile 
and Euphrates, beneath the sunny skies of 



54 CULTUEA. 

Greece and Rome, in the rude cloisters of the 
German forests, and in the rude temples of the 
Druidic and Scandinavian worshipers. 

There are many important lessons taught by 
the study of the heavens. We observe perfect 
and unchanging order in the starry host. The 
constellations now occupy the same relative po- 
sitions that they did when the Psalmist of Israel 
looked upon the firmament from the hills of 
Bethlehem. The heavens declare God's glory 
by their vastness. It is thought a very long 
voyage to cross one of the great oceans. Such 
distance would only be a start towards the near- 
est planet. The glory of Jehovah is declared 
by the unity observed in the great universe of 
God. There is a grand center from which all 
life and being come. The infinite love of God 
manifested in creation teaches us that he cares 
for us with more than an earthly parent's love. 
He has provided for our eternal welfare ; and 
while it does not yet appear what we shall be, 
we know that when Jesus comes we will be like 
him, and be permitted to study God's work 
throughout boundless space. 



(©HAPJITBI^ II. 

Ordee and Adaptation in Natuee. 

section i. — oedee in the system of natuee. 

In the material world everything perfectly 
conforms to an exact pattern. Every organic 
object is formed after a type ; and it, with the 
certainty of a magnet needle, points back to its 
ultimate cause. This is not only true with 
the starry heavens, but every flower that blos- 
soms beneath our feet is also a proof of it. The 
Creator has many patterns ; for there are no two 
flowers exactly alike, and each one is made after 
a perfect model. As the painter makes many 
pictures after a general plan, but has variety in 
the models, so the Great Artist has given us 
many flowers after a general plan, but has shown 
great variety in the details. The Creator has 
made no two things exactly after the same plan. 
What would you think of the intelligence of a 
person who could look at a flower produced by 
a painter, and deny the existence of thought on 
the part of the author ? You would pronounce 



56 CULTUKA. 

such a person a simpleton, or a fool. It is not 
surprising that David calls the man a fool who 
can look upon the natural world and deny the 
existence of God. 

Pythagoras observed that there was a beautiful 
regularity running through every part of nature, 
as well as through nature as a whole. In re- 
spect to form, we observe perfect order in nature. 
In form we, of course, include structure. Geom- 
etry, the science which treats of forms, admits of 
an application to many of the objects of nature. 
The planets have a spheroidal shape, and move in 
orbits which perfectly describe an ellipse. The 
subject of crystallization in mineralogy is im- 
portant in illustrating this point. Nearly all, if 
not all, minerals crystallize, that is, they assume 
regular forms. In a variety of ways we find 
their forms mathematically exact. The crystal 
is bounded by plane surfaces, it has parallel 
sides, and there are invariable angles formed by 
the sides. Among organized bodies there are 
real and not fanciful types. Vegetables and 
animals are classified according to natural type. 
One of Plato's maxims was that the Deity 
proceeded according to geometry. The inor- 



CULTUEA. 57 

ganic world constitutes the elementary geom- 
etry, and the organic the highest geometry ot' 
nature. Man is the highest type of animal, 
and appears to reach the ultimatum of vertebrate 
creation. Considering physical types, we do 
not see how a more perfect being could be 
formed than the model man. There is order 
with regard to color in the material world. 
Color is significant in the works of man. Every 
nation has its dtstinctive colors upon its flags. 
Color can be no less significant in the works of 
God than in the works of man. There are 
some tribes of algae arranged by Harvey accord- 
ing to their colors, and Berkley classifies certain 
fungi according to the colors of their seeds. We 
believe there are certain fixed principles for the 
distribution of colors in the whole system of 
nature. Red and blue, two primary colors, we 
believe are never found in contact on the same 
plant. The plumage of birds and the spots 
and stripes of animals are according to predeter- 
mined order. The different colors in the races 
of men are according to a wise plan on the part 
of the Creator. In nature we find also order in 
number. There are laws of number in astron- 



58 CULTURA. 

omy, and the laws in the science of chemistry 
have been reduced to numerical expression. 
Ten is the typical number of fingers aud toes of 
man, and of the digits of all vertebrate animals. 
In the mammalia, seven is the number of verte- 
brae in the neck, whether it be the long neck of 
a giraffe or the short neck of the elephant. The 
animal and vegetable kingdoms furnish numer- 
ous examples of order in number. 

There is a beautiful order in nature with re- 
gard to time. The primary and secondary 
planets are periodical in their revolutions. Day 
and night succeed each other in order of time. 
The moon always performs her revolutions 
around the earth in definite periods of time. 
Even the mysterious comets are so periodic that 
the astronomers can definitely calculate the time 
of their return. 

Order in the natural world clearly teaches 
that it results from supreme intelligence. 
Nothing less than thought in the cause can 
account for its manifestations in the effect. 
Plato, in proving the existence of God, dwells 
upon the order and beauty of the universe. 
Cicero, in his De Natura Deorum, dwells upon 



CULTURA. 59 

the order, as well as the adaptation, of everything 
in the natural world, to prove the existence of 
the Supreme Being. 

In nature we not only find everything accord- 
ing to a plan, but the objects in one epoch 
appear to be a prediction of those to appear 
in a later epoch. Embryology teaches that 
there is systematic progression in the formation 
of the young and all animals. In one of the 
Psalms we have this pointed language : " I will 
praise thee ; for I am fearfiilly and wonderfully 
made ; marvelous are thy works ; and that my 
soul knoweth right well. My substance was 
not hidden from thee, when I was made in 
secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest 
parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my sub- 
stance, yet being imperfect ; and in thy book all 
my members were written, which in continuance 
were fashioned, when as yet there was none of 
them.^' 

Geology well illustrates the principle under 
consideration. Everything is formed after a 
type, and one age seems to be prophetic of a 
coming one. Lower animals anticipate higher, 
and the higher seems to be a perfect fulfillment 



60 



CULTUEA. 



of the prediction found in the lower. Not that 
one is derived from the other, but there appears 
to be a typical relationship between the different 
ages. One plant does not produce another 
plant, nor does one species of animal produce 
another species ; but the different ages stand in 
the relationship to one another very much as 
that of type stands to antitype. Man appears 
to be the end of a progression commenced at 
the beginning of creation. 

As we find such a beautiful typical system in 
nature, the student naturally expects to find 
something of the same character in a direct 
revelation of God's will. And as the typical 
system in nature appears to have a perfect adap- 
tation to the human mind, we find a like adap- 
tation in the typical systems of the Bible. 

Tlie Old Testament contains a wonderful sys- 
tem of typology. As a chapter in the future will 
be especially devoted to this subject, I will not 
dwell long on it at present. The extravagance 
of some writers has greatly injured the study of 
Biblical typology, and caused many to look 
upon it all as fanciful. They have departed 
largely from the scriptural use of the term, and 



CtlLTURA. 61 

have become visionaries. The word type, as 
used in the Bible, denotes pattern, or example, 
and these beautiful patterns point to something 
more perfect in the future. There are persons 
and events of one age made to anticipate and 
represent those of a coming age. The past is 
made an example for the present. (I. Cor. x. 11). 
Paul makes the judgments of God, which came 
upon the children of Israel in the wilderness, 
examples for the Corinthians and for all other 
Christians. 

There are types under the Christian system 
as well as under the Jewish. (Rom. vi. 17 ; 
Phil. iii. 17; I. Thess. i. 7). While a type pre- 
figures the future, it must be remembered that it 
is also a model, and shows how God has worked 
after a plan in all ages, and expects man to fol- 
low the examples presented him by the infinite 
Creator. Lord Bacon recognized the importance 
of types, and said : " As hieroglyphics preceded 
letters, so parables are older than arguments." 
The life and work of Christ upon earth contin- 
ues in the work of the Church. Christ is yet 
among the candlesticks, and his life and com- 
mands are reproduced in the redeemed. While 



62 CULTUBA. 

the Old Testament is the great book of types, 
typology does not altogether disappear in the 
New. All Christians are formed after a definite 
model, and the ordinances of the Church point 
to the past and the future. The wisdom of God 
is clearly shown in the typology of both nature 
and revelation. 

SECTION II. — ADAPTATION IN NATURE. 

We have spoken of order in the natural 
world, which can not be the result of chance, 
but it clearly teaches that the various types in 
nature were prearranged by an intelligent be- 
ing. We can not account for the types in the 
Bible without admitting that their author under- 
stood the nature and character of the antitypes. 
Neither can we understand the patterns in na- 
ture without having to admit that their author 
understood their adaptation in the natural 
world. Such an author can be nothing less 
than an intelligent being. The God of the 
Bible and the God of Nature then correspond ; 
and the two great volumes which he has created 
kre in harmony, and are the result of the same 
intelligent mind. 



culturA. 63 

If order is Heaven's first law, then adaptation 
is certainly the second. On these two laws is 
founded the whole system of true science. Let 
these two laws be thrown as mites into the treas- 
ury of the Lord, and eternal wisdom will look 
on and commend the act. There is no depart- 
ment of science from which the truth of these 
laws can not be established. The ideas of order 
and adaptation are intuitions of the human 
mind, and, while they were chronologically 
developed by nature, they logically existed in 
the mind before this development. 

When we take into consideration the fact that 
inertia is a universal property of matter, and 
that there could be no motion in the universe so 
far as matter itself is concerned, we find over- 
whelming proof of the existence of intelligence 
in the material forces of nature. There must 
be intellectual superintendence in order to their 
beneficial action, for these powers are all blind 
in themselves. Heat, light and electricity are 
most powerful instruments for good in the 
world, but in the hands of an evil being they 
become the most potent means of evil. They 
may be benevolent towards living beings, or 



64 CtTLTtTRA* 

they may spread misery and ruin. It depends 
altogetlier upon the way in which they are 
guided. There is obviously a necessity of a 
guiding mind to cause these forces to act in 
harmony, and to result in wise and benevolent 
action. 

The ancient atheists ascribed the formation of 
this universe to chance; modern materialists 
claim that there is no such thing as chance ; 
that all things proceed from a chain of ma- 
terial causes. Neither of these positions is cor- 
rect. There is no such thing as chance in the 
sense that an event can happen without a cause ; 
but it is certain that many events happen that 
can not be accounted for on the supposition that 
there is no cause above material causes. When 
we see wood, glass, lime and stone combined in 
a house, or when we find wheels, pulleys and 
cylinders conjoined to produce a machine, we 
know that these things are not the result of 
chance, but of arrangements made by intelli- 
gence to secure a contemplated end. The house 
in which we live is more wonderful than any 
house which has been produced by human inge- 
nuity. How account for the combinations in 



CULTUEA. 65 

this marvelous superstructure without admitting 
the pre-existence of the supreme Architect? 
The plants and animals of this world have pro- 
ceeded from progenitors created thousands of 
years ago, and so constituted as to produce off- 
spring after their kind. To argue from this 
succession that they were not designed, is to 
make their beauty and perfection an evidence 
that they did not proceed from an intelligent 
cause, when in reality they prove just the 
opposite. 

We find the mineral kingdom perfectly 
adapted to the vegetable and animal king- 
doms. This thought was forcibly impressed 
upon my mind in hearing lecture the celebrated 
Guyot, and reading his work, entitled, " The 
Earth and Man." In our present state of 
knowledge, we find more than sixty substances 
uncompounded. Each of these, of course, has 
its own property, but the system of nature is 
sustained by the joint action of them all. The 
absence of one of them would, doubtless, cause 
confusion in the whole kingdom of nature. 
Of all these substances we find oxygen most 
widely distributed, because it is most essential 



66 CULTUBA. 

to vegetable and animal life. Hydrogen, the 
other element of water, and carbon, the princi- 
pal source of light and heat, are also widely 
distributed. Indeed, beautiful is that system of 
adaptation by which animals appropriate oxy- 
gen, and throw off carbonic acid for the use of 
plants, while plants do just the opposite, and set 
free oxygen for the use of animals. This argu- 
ment might be extended into a volume, but we 
will not press it farther now than to simply call 
attention to the wonderful adaptation of this 
earth to the abode of vegetable and animal life. 
A careful study of physical geography will 
cause any thoughtful student to marvel at the 
wisdom shown by the Creator of this world. 
It was not blind force, but an intelligent mind, 
that placed the greatest quantity of water and 
the highest mountains in the southern hemi- 
sphere. If the opposite had been done, the 
earth would be entirely destitute of living 
beings. 

There is no want of adaptation in the vege ■ 
table kingdom. We find it from the time the 
plant springs from the seed to the time it pro- 
duces seed itself. All of its organs conform to 



CULTTJRA. 67 

special types, and all of its parts are adapted to 
the welfare of the whole. Mathematical law is 
found in the vegetable as well as in the mineral 
and animal kingdoms, and this points back to 
the great Law-giver of the universe. Material- 
istic and atheistic hypotheses can not account for 
the mysteries of life upon this earth, and even 
infidel scientists are disposed to abandon the 
doctrine of spontaneous generation as an ex- 
ploded hypothesis. 

By spontaneous generation is meant the forma- 
tion of living creatures directly from dead matter, 
without the intervention of living organisms. 
This theory is substantially an old one, for the 
ancients supposed that frogs and other small 
reptiles which are found in stagnant marshes and 
slimy pools were produced from the slime and 
mud in which they lived. The people clung to 
this position until the science of zoology com- 
pelled them to abandon it. It would have been 
a wonderful prop to materialistic evolution had 
not modern science knocked it down. Prof. 
Tyndall, by a number of careful experiments, 
has shown the hypothesis to be entirely untenable. 
It was believed for several thousand years that 



68 CULTXTRA. 

maggots found in decaying meat were produced 
spontaneously. It was finally discovered that 
meat protected from flies would never have any 
maggots. The spontaneous generation of the 
horsehair snake is a relic of the old superstition. 
The microscope has revealed new worlds of in- 
finitesimal beings which were supposed to be 
spontaneous in origin; but science has demon- 
strated the fact that all of them have parentage. 
We may lay down this as a scientific axiom ; 
no living organism ever originated without some 
previously existing living being. Whence came 
the first germ of life ? The only rational an- 
swer is that it came from God, the great fountain 
of life and being. The greatest manifestation of 
the infinite wisdom and power of the Creator is 
to be found in the marvelous universe of life. 
A drop of water has been found peopled with 
animated forms ; and a speck of green scum from 
a stagnant pool presents a museum of living 
Wonders. The testimony of nature is that the 
marvels of life belong to the First Great Cause. 
In that Great Cause there is wisdom, power and 
goodness, for the effect necessarily implies this, 
Jehovah is the Father of us all. 



CULTURA. _69 

We find adaptation from the lowest form of 
life up to the highest. The radiates are exactly 
adapted to their sphere of life. They are pro- 
tected from injury, appropriate their food, and 
reproduce after their kind. Prof Huxley has 
reduced to the same type some of the most com- 
plex forms of radiates, and has shown that a 
general law regulates them all. Even the num- 
ber of radii is also subject to law. The number 
five prevails in both the sea-star and the sea- 
urchin, which caused Thomas Browne to declare 
that nature delighteth in five points among sea- 
stars. The molluscs are all framed after the 
same model, and we find in this great division 
of the animal kingdom adaptation which im- 
plies previous arrangement by intelligence. A 
marvelous harmony and wonderful adaptation is 
found in the study of articulates. The lobster 
and crawfish are so developed as to fit them for 
progression through the water. The industry 
and instinct of insects has been an interesting 
study in all ages. Who can fail to admire the 
activity of the bee, the division of labor and 
persevering toil of the ant, and the beautiful 
butterfly which sips nectar from the flowers? 



70 CULTURA. 

The transformation of insects has always been 
a marvel to the student, and it is used as an 
illustration of future development on the part 
of man. The future state is no more marvelous 
than the mysteries of the present. Look at the 
repulsive caterpillar, then the sleeping chrysalis, 
and then behold the gorgeous butterfly bathing 
its wings in the pure air of heaven. If a repul- 
sive worm can become a beautiful butterfly, 
there can be no reason why man may not 
become the brightest messenger of the eternal 
world. The vertebrates were the most ad- 
vanced in animal progress, and anticipated the 
advent of man. While we find perfect order in 
the make up of vertebrates, the modifications in 
the structure of different animals shows wonder- 
ful adaptation on the part of the Creator for the 
benefit of the individual. The comparative 
study of the teeth of different animals shows an 
adaptation that ought to be a cure for atheism. 
We find evidence of the existence of a first 
great and intelligent Cause in the existence of 
life upon this earth ; and when we take up the 
study of geology, we find that the same Cause 
was at work in the various transformations that 



CULTURA. 71 

this earth has undergone. There can be no 
doubt that during the geological ages the 
various animals and plants were adapted to one 
another, and to the condition of the earth at the 
time. And at the same time there was prepara- 
tion going on for the introduction of a higher 
being upon the earth. Prof Agassiz taught in 
the halls of Harvard that there was a manifest 
progress in the succession of living beings on 
the surface of the earth. In this progress is 
found an increasing similarity to the living fauna 
and among vertebrates an increasing likeness 
to man. They do not, however, appear to be 
connected in the relationship of parental de- 
scent. The paleozoic fishes were not the ances- 
tors of the monsters of the reptilian age, nor 
did man descend from the giant mammals of 
the tertiary age. The different ages are con- 
nected by a higher and less material chain, and 
this can only be understood by a careful study 
of the Final Cause of the universe itself. Man 
was the end to which all life tended from its 
first dawn upon the earth. 

Man is an epitome of the universe, and mind 
is really the man proper. The study of mind, 



72 CULTUBA. 

then, is the study of the universe. It is mind 
that looks out through the senses, and studies the 
world without ; it is mind that makes the past 
reappear, and imagines the absent as if present ; 
it is mind that analyses nature, discovers re- 
semblances, and systematizes everything; it is 
mind that reasons from effect to cause, argues 
from the known to the unknown, and discovers 
new planets even before the telescope detects 
them. Mind is certainly the crowning object of 
creation. There seems to be in the very consti- 
tution of the human mind a preparation for the 
study and recognition of the various substances 
in the system of nature. 

Special adaptation in this universe addresses 
itself to every human being, and it is suited to 
every human being capable of rational thought. 
No difference what may be a man's occupation, 
he can study adaptation. Almost every instru- 
ment used by man has something resembling it 
in nature, or rather, something in nature that it 
resembles; so man is only an imitator of the 
Being in whose image he was made. 



Shaptbi^ III. 
Man's Place in the System of Nature. 

Everything preceding man appears to be a 
prophecy of his appearance upon the earth. 
That he has a close relationship to the animal 
below him, no one will for a moment question. 
That he also has elements in his nature relating 
him to a world above him, is just as evident. 
He occupies the hiatus which would otherwise 
have been unoccupied between the natural and 
spiritual worlds. His nature seems to be made 
up of the grossness of the one and the refine- 
ment of the other. 

Some philosophers, looking only at the mate- 
rial side of man, have defined him to be simply 
an intelligence assisted by organs. They fail to 
discriminate between man and the brute, for the 
lower animals are intelligent and are assisted by 
organs. In his bodily organization man is, of 
course, an animal, and he is the perfection of 
animal progress. The student of geology is 
necessarily convinced that man stands at the 

78 



74 CULTURA. 

head of animal creation. Any true definition of 
man must include his relationship to the lower 
animal, but it must not stop there. While man 
is an animal, he is much more than an animal. 
He is an organized, intelligent being, endowed 
with the powers of abstraction and con- 
science. 

With the appearance of man a new period in 
geological history began. In the earliest period 
only dead matter existed ; then unconscious life 
in the plant appeared, and in the process of time 
intelligent life in the lower animal was intro- 
duced. Long ages rolled on before the world 
was ready for the introduction of man. God, 
who is a great economist, used pre-existing 
material in the formation of man's body, and 
then breathed into it a spiritual nature. He is, 
therefore, the only being capable of obedience to 
spiritual law, and subject to degradation in case 
of violation of the same. 

Both nature and revelation clearly teach that 
God created man. It is a perfect absurdity to 
suppose that matter in itself could evolve intel- 
ligence. Men may difi^er as to God's method of 
creating. Some may think that it was by a 



CULTURA. 75 

process called evolution, and others by direct 
creation ; but the fact that a superior intelligence 
placed man in this world is to the thoughtful a 
necessary deduction of reason. The word create 
itself does not always mean the absolute origina- 
tion of the material used. The Bible doesu not tell 
us the length of time it took to create the body 
of man, and does not, therefore, contradict any 
true doctrine of evolution that might be estab- 
lished. The materialistic tendencies of the 
doctrine of evolution, as taught at the present 
time, are, however, very reprehensible. 

We urge the following objections to the 
modern hypothesis of the evolution of man 
from the lower animal : (1) The theorists them- 
selves admit that the records in geological his- 
tory do not support the hypothesis that one 
_^^ecies has been transmuted into another. The 
chain of continuity has been broken, and strange 
forms suddenly introduced without any intima- 
tions of their appearance. (2) Instinct in the 
lower animal does not appear to be the result of 
cultivation, but a direct gift from God. All 
persons know something of this wonderful gift 
on the part of the busy bee, but it is only the 



76 CULTURA. 

working bee that is a builder and a honey maker. 
It does not inherit this instinct from its parents, 
for neither the drone nor the queen bee works, 
and the working J)ee has no posterity. Mr. Dar- 
win himself was never able to overcome this 
difficulty. (3) All vegetable or animal life re- 
quires a seed or germ to start the process of de- 
velopment. It is not conceivable that material 
substances^ even when assisted by electricity, can 
produce an egg or a seed. All vegetable and 
animal life, therefore, require a power outside of 
material substances to account for their wonder- 
ful phenomena. (4) If man is a development 
from the highest type of the animal creation, 
what has become of the intermediate link be- 
tween man and the brute ? Science can give no 
iaccount of any trace of such a link. It can not 
be found among either the living or the dead. 
The development hypothesis can not rid itself of 
the miraculous, for if such a development ever 
did exist, it required a miracle to stop it. Science 
can not properly separate itself from the super- 
natural. (5) The most helpless in infancy of all 
animal creation is man. In his struggle for ex- 
istence with other animals he would be placed 



CULTURA. 77 

at a great disadvantage. It would have required 
a miracle to preserve the life of the first infant 
in case the evolution theory is correct. The 
mind of man was necessary before the body of 
beast could be given up ; and if the mind of 
man was given at the time the body of beast 
was given up, then there was a new creation. 
(6) The evolution theory can not account for the 
intellectual and moral powers of man. It was 
the mind of Newton that discovered some of 
the grandest principles of modern scientific ad- 
vancement. That mind which has changed the 
face of material creation could not have been 
simply the product of material forces. The 
mind oi Bramante, which conceived St. Peter's 
long before tlie grand building was erected, was 
itself causative, and not confined simply to 
material causation. Man is conscious of his own 
freedom and of a law of right, and can not be 
the result of helpless material forces. (7) The 
philosophy of history clearly teaches that civili- 
zation was learned from without, and that no 
really barbarous nation has ever been able to in- 
itiate civilization. All tradition seems to point 
back to the fact that primeval man had a knowl- 



78 CULTURA. 

edge of a Supreme Being. It is a fact that bar- 
barous nations believe that there was a time 
when they were more highly civilized. Evolution 
alone can not account for these facts. As races, 
men may so degenerate as to^die^out, but man 
never reverts to any type of monkey. Do- 
mestic animals may become wild, for the wild 
state is natural to the brute. The civilized state 
is natural to man, and when he forsakes it he 
dies out, if not redeemed by some external in- 
fluence. 

Man was created in the image of God. This 
is not a personification of some object or force 
of nature, but the God of the first chapter of 
Genesis. Between the attributes of Jehovah 
and those of man there is a great difference, 
and this makes it possible that man could have 
been formed in the image of God. Modern 
infidels claim that man created God, but nature 
and revelation teach that God created man. 
The Creator of man, as described in the begin- 
ning of the Old Testament, is worthy of man's 
Redeemer as found in the New Testament. The 
unity of the Bible is shown in the manifesta- 
tions of God's love to man. 



CULTURA. 79 

Herbert Spencer positively affirms the exist- 
ence of a power distinct from matter, and calls 
this the Unknowable. It seems, however, that 
Mr. Spencer knows enough about this power to 
known that it is unknown. Prof. Fiske, the 
ablest of Mr. Spencer's disciples in this country, 
claims that his master means by unknowable 
about the same that Moses meant when he says 
of God that we are unable to find him out. 
Mr. Fiske fully agrees with Matthew Arnold 
that this power is above ourselves and makes 
for righteousness. The following language of 
Mr. Spencer shows that he has been feeling after 
God, even if he has never found him : " Amid 
all mysteries, there remains the one absolute 
certainty — we are ever in the presence of the 
infinite and eternal energy, from whom all 
things proceed." Man was made in the image 
of God in intellect. He has ability to fully 
recognize his own^ersonality, and know defi- 
nitely his identity. He commences with cer- 
tainty, and his own nature contradicts any 
theory of absolute agnosticism. The Agnostic 
might be asked how he knows that he does 
not know, for when he makes an affirmation he 



80 CULTURA. 

contradicts his own theory. There are things 
that we can positively know, for God did not 
create the senses and reason to deceive us. Man 
can reason from cause to effect, which enables 
him to subdue nature, and advance civilization. 
We can even know something of things invis- 
ible, and through nature and revelation we are 
enabled to know God, whom to know aright is 
life eternal. Pope thus speaks of the wonderful 
powers of man : 

" See him from nature rising slow to art ! 
To copy instinct then was reason's part : 
Thus, then, to man the voice of Nature spake — 
So, from the creatures thy instructions take : 
Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield ; 
Learn from the beast the physics of the field ; 
Thy arts of building from the bee receive ; 
Learn from the mole to plough, the worm to weave ; 
Learn of the little nautilus to sail. 
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale." 

Man was made in the image of God in his 
sensibilities. Almost inseparably connected with 
the exercise of intellect is feeling. Buddhists 
and Pantheists may conceive of what they call 
God without feeling, but nature and revelation 
teach us nothing about such a God. The God 
of nature and revelation is a God of feeling. 



CULTURE. 81 

and man wag made in his image. Every effect 
must have an adequate cause, and the sensibili'- 
ties of man can not be accounted for upon any 
other hypothesis than that the God who created 
man is a God of feeling. Man is in the image 
of God in knowledge, for in some things he is 
able to know as God knows; so in feeling he is 
in God's image, for he is able to feel some things 
as God feels. God loves man, and has given 
many manifestations of this love ; so we are 
taught to love him, because he first loved us. 
So long as man retains capacity to love God, 
he has not entirely lost the image in which he 
was created. 

Man was also created in the image of God in 
his freedom of will. Dr. Carpenter makes free 
will power in man the distinguishing character- 
istic between him and the lower animal. Man 
is conscious of having a personal free will, 
which can act as a cause. In freedom and 
causative power man is, then, in God's image. 
Man is, therefore, held responsible for his con- 
duct. Society never attributes right or wrong 
to a beast, but man is the subject of moral obli- 
gation. Man may deny his freedom, but society 



82 CULTUEA. 

treats him as free. Suppose that a murderer, 
who has been condemned to death, declares 
upon the gallows that bis will was not free, and 
he could not help it. He might enlist some 
sympathy, but it would not be of any benefit to 
his neck. Man was made in God's image, and is 
free because his Maker is free. As God's vice- 
gerent in tins world, man himself can originate 
causes. He is held strictly responsible for the 
effects of the causes he originates. From what 
we have written, it is evident that man was 
created in the image of God as himself a crea- 
tor, and was intended to have dominion in this 
world. Shakespeare thus speaks of him : 
'^ What a piece of work is man ! How noble 
in reason, how infinite in faculties ! In action, 
how like an angel ; in apprehension, how like a 
god !" 

Disobedience to God has brought much mis- 
ery upon man, and man has greatly defaced the 
image in which he was created. He has become 
a sinner. " He that sinneth against me, wrong- 
eth his own soul," is the language of the wise 
man (Prov. viii. 36). Worcester thus defines 
sin : " Any action, word, desire, purpose, or 



CULTURA. 83 

omission contrary to the law of God ; a vio- 
lation of the divine law, or a voluntary failure 
to comply with it." The idea of omission is 
included as well as that of commission. The 
word sin is from the Greek sineiuy to injure. It 
may be allied to the Anglo-Saxon sundriaUj to 
separate. The oldest German definition of sin is 
any transgression of the law. The Bible defines 
sin as the transgression of the law (I. John 
iii. 4). 

In his failure to eat of the fruit of the tree 
of life, and in eating of the fruit of the tree of 
knowledge of good and evil, Adam was guilty 
of the sin of omission and of commission. Sin 
preceded death ; and death was the result of 
sin, at least so far as man was concerned. 

As a substantive, sin is sometimes spoken of 
as a power, a principle, or an evil. While a 
tendency, or propensity to evil may be transmit- 
ted, sin itself can not be. God never permits a 
person, not idiotic, to be born into this world, 
who has not the power to do right. Take from 
a man the power to do right without his own 
act, and you immediately release him from all 
responsibility. 



84 CULTURA. 

It is said that sin has placed man in a sub- 
natural state. That is true, when we compare 
the present with man's condition before the fall ; 
but the present state is now known as the natu- 
ral. In the fall, man did not altogether lose 
the divine image, but it was greatly defaced. 
As before stated, man stands between the natural 
and spiritual worlds. He may go up, or he may 
go down ; so Pascal is correct in calling him 
the glory and scandal of the universe. While 
this looks contradictory, it is nevertheless true. 
Some men are the glory, and others are the 
scandal of the universe. The inspired bard of 
Israel in one sentence contemplates man as poor 
and depressed, and in the next as exalted and 
almost angelic (Ps. viii. 4, 5). These apparently 
contradictory statements make up the true view 
of human nature. In even good men, we find 
contradictory elements. The poet says : 

" Explain it as you will, 
Woman is a contradiction still." 

This statement is just as true of man as it is of 
woman. With all his defects, man has been 
made only a little lower than the angels, and 
has been crowned with glory and honor. There 



CTJLTUEA. 85 

is a treasure in human nature with which only a 
few are fully acquainted. The doctrine of pes- 
simism has been a curse to the human race. 

The man that sins, ruins his own soul. That 
he iujuies society, no one will for a moment 
question. The moral leper spreads misery 
through the world; he inflicts injury upon the 
vital part of society ; and frequently the inno- 
cent are destroyed through his hellish passion. 
Sometimes society has to take the life of a man 
for its own protection. This country evidently 
requires such rigid law, even for the protection 
of its chief magistrate. However great may be 
the injury done by the transgressor to society, 
the greatest injury is done to his own soul. He 
destroys body, soul and spirit. Sin, like the 
leprosy, will manifest itself even in the face of 
man. 

The reason of man is wronged by sin. In 
some cases it absolutely destroys reason. This 
is frequently true of the inebriate. The sinner 
prostrates reason by its employment in his evil 
designs. Sin is insanity, for it makes man an 
irrational creature and a fool. He will give up 
heaven for earth, when, in the true sense, he 



86 CULTURA. 

might enjoy both. A. pure mind can enjoy 
much more in this world than can an impure 
one. Sin is, therefore, very unreasonable. 

Sin greatly wrongs the conscience. Con- 
science is as much a part of man's nature as is 
reason. Wlien a man sins, conscience enters its 
protest. A great student of human nature has 
said : " Conscience makes cowards of us all.'' 
In sickness a sinner is a very great coward. I 
knew a certain blasphemer who did nothing 
but pray while he was sick, and nothing but 
curse when he got well. The trangressor knows 
that his course is wrong, and he does not want 
his child to follow his example. 

Sin is ruinous to the affections. It destroys 
the parental, the filial and the conjugal. In 
fact, all the most sacred attachments of earth 
are severed by its malignant touch. The will- 
power of man is also ruined by sin. Every 
sin weakens the will-power of him that com- 
mits it. When man's will-power is gone, then 
all is lost. It is an absolute truth that he who 
sins wrongs his own soul. 

While man is much higher than any other 
animal, he is the only one in which the tend- 



CULTUEA. 87 

ency to development takes a wrong direction. 
As a result of this, we find a large number of 
men among all nations who are a prey to 
hahits that are monstrous and unnatural; and 
such that no analogy to them can be found 
among the lower animals. These practices vio- 
late the harmony of nature, and are frequently 
fatal to a tribe or nation of men. 

Some nations which reached a high civiliza- 
tion have been ruined by this tendency to de- 
terioration. The great empires of antiquity 
might be used as illustrations of this fact. 
The idea of civilization does not always com- 
prehend the idea of virtue, for some nations, 
which have been considered highly civilized, 
have tolerated, and even praised, the most 
vicious and corrupt practices. The Greeks 
reached the highest intellectual culture to which 
humanity has thus far attained; but in virtue 
they were far below some uncivilized nations. 
The fact that the word barbarian is not now 
used in the sense that it was used by the 
ancients, is misleading to many students. The 
Greeks applied this term to all nations except 
their own, and it has no reference whatever 



88 CULTURA. 

to the culture or civilization of those nations. 
Paul culled all those nations Barbarians which 
spoke languages unknown to Christians. He 
applied this term to the natives of the island 
of Malta, and in the same connection speaks 
of their kindness and hospitality. The Es- 
quimo are wholly uncivilized, but are not 
savage in the sense in which that term is gen- 
erally used. 

It is claimed by some theorists that the state 
of primeval man was that of savage — even be- 
low that of the lowest savage of the present age. 
We read that the first man was endowed with 
the power of speech, and had ability to name 
the lower animals. He may not have been in- 
tellectually eminent, but he was morally inno- 
cent. That he did not practice savage customs 
is evident from the following reasons : (1) Can- 
nibalism and infanticide are the most common 
practices of savage life. It is very evident that 
primeval man was not guilty of either, or he 
would not now have any race. (2) Savage races 
are very cruel to their women. Even the lower 
animal is not cruel to the female, and it is not at 
all prpbal)le that primeval man was cruel iq bis 



CDLTURA. 89 

mate. These savage customs to which we have 
alluded, and which could not have been prime- 
val, seem to indicate that other savage habits 
and customs have taken their origin in a ten- 
dency to degradation on the part of man. For 
example, primeval man practiced monogamy, and 
polygamy originated in a tendency to develop 
backwards. It is a creation on the part of man, 
and out of harmony with God's law of marriage 
given at the beginning. 

According to Mr. Darwin, the natives of Ti- 
erra del Fuego are among the most degraded of 
all races. They are cannibals, and eat their old 
women before they do their dogs, on the princi- 
ple that the dogs can catch other game. Of one 
of these savages who was taken to England in 
the Beagle, Mr. Darwin says that his intellect 
was good. It is very evident that the wretched 
condition of this people is the result of the law 
of deterioration. They were doubtless driven 
there by a more powerful race, and deprived of 
all the means of progress. 

Nations have reached a high state of civiliza- 
tion, and then so deteriorated that more power- 
fill nations have driven them to localities where 



90 CULTUEA. 

their surroundings forced them into the savage 
state. Had it not been for the Church of the 
the middle ages it is difficult to tell what would 
have been the result of the overthrow of the 
Eoman Empire by the northern barbarians. 
There is abundant evidence of an early civiliza- 
tion in America, but savage war made it the 
dark and bloody land. In the early explora- 
tions of America highly civilized tribes were 
found, and in a few years they were extermi- 
nated. 

The religious practices of savage nations can 
be accounted for on the same principle of deteri- 
oration. This law contradicts the position of 
Mr. Comte, that fetishism came first, then poly- 
theism, then monotheism, and last of all corat- 
ism, or the religion of humanity. Prof. Max 
Miiller his thoroughly exposed this in his Hib- 
bert Lectures, and has shown the true origin of 
the word fetish. It grew out of a superstition 
in the Roman, Church in attaching religious 
value to crosses and images. These were called 
by the worshipers " feiticus.'^ When the Portu- 
guese sailors saw the negroes on the west coast 
of Africa attaching similar value to like objects. 



CtTLTURA. 91 

they called them fetish worshipers* A French 
philosopher of the Voltaire school extended the 
meaning of this word to about its present use. 
A careful student of the science of religion can 
not well reach any other conclusion than that 
primeval man was a monotheist, and that poly- 
theism, with all its kindred evils, has resulted 
from that tendency to deterioration which 
has been so fearfully visible in the history of 
mankind. 

No student of human nature can deny the 
fact that man is so constituted that he will wor- 
ship. He is naturally a religious being, and 
will worship something. It is also a fact that 
he becomes assimilated to the moral character 
of the object worshiped. These facts make it 
absolutely certain that no idolatrous nation can 
extricate itself from idolatry. There is no hope 
for the elevation of savage nations except by 
presenting to them ideals from without. The 
view of human nature which we have taken 
makes it very certain that the progess of hu- 
manity has resulted from God's revelation to 
man. When all races of men fully accept 
that religion which teaches the fatherhood of 



92 CULTURA. 

God and the universal brotherhood of man, 
then true culture will result in the perfection 
of humanity. 



©HAPTEI^ lU. 
Natuee and Theism. 

In the study of theism, nature and revelation 
should never be separated. God revealed him- 
self to man at the beginning, aud nature fully 
demonstrates the truth of this revelation. The 
Bible also recognizes the importance of this 
natural evidence, and appeals to the shining 
heavens for a declaration of the glory of 
God. 

Paul states : " The invisible things of him 
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, 
being understood by the things that are made, 
even his eternal power and Godhead ; so that 
they are without excuse" (Rom. i. 20). 

In the study of the following arguments in 
favor of theism, we wish the reader to strictly 
connect them all in his own mind. While we 
would not be willing to rely entirely upon any 
one argument; taking them as a whole, we do 
not see how any candid mind can resist the evi- 
dence. 



94 CULTURAi 



THE ONTOLOGICAL PROOF. 

The word ontology is from the Greek 6W«, 
which denotes the things that exist. The onto- 
logical method investigates the reality and 
nature of being as such. It is metaphysical in 
the sense that it investigates the very essence of 
things and the validity of knowledge. As a 
theistic proof, the term ontological is almost 
identical with the proof called a prioriy which 
commences with intuitive ideas, and proceeds 
upon the principles of induction. It insists 
that something real has existed from eternity. 
The universe was preceded by something un- 
caused, self active, and independent. Back of 
being, as we find it in this universe, there must 
be necessary being. 

The idea of God seems peculiar to man, and 
has existed in every stage of his development. 
There must be some reality to correspond to 
this idea, or else man's instincts, conscience and 
reason are deceptive. We can not for a moment 
grant that man's faculties deceive him, for this 
would undermine all knowledge. We do not 
insist that every idea in man's mind has a real- 



CULTURA. 95 

ity, but that such general conception as that of 
God must have its counterpart, if man^s facul- 
ties are not deceptive. The theistic conception 
is reflected upon the very face of humanity, as 
the clouds and sky are reflected upon the bosom 
of the placid waters. 

Man has a distinct and definite idea of God. 
He can separate it from all others, and when he 
thinks about it he feels that there is reality 
corresponding to this thought. His conception 
may not be perfect, but he feels that it corre- 
sponds to reality so far as it does go. The infi- 
nite and eternal are just as clear in thought as 
is the conception that a man forms of an hour 
or a circle. 

We do not claim that the existence of God is 
strictly intuitive ; for if it was, there would be 
no necessity for arguments. The divine exist- 
ence is quite evident, but it is not self-evident. 
I can imagine the non-existence of God, but I 
can not imagine the non-existence of space or 
time. In the progress of philosophy, the reality 
of space and time is becoming more and more 
recognized. Sir Isaac Newton claims that space 
and time are attributes of God. If they are 



96 CULTTJRA. 

attributes, they necessarily inhere in a substance. 
The substance must then exist, for space and 
time of necessity exist. 

The ontological evidence was convincing to 
some of the great thinkers of the world. Des- 
cartes, Leibnitz, Bishop Butler, Cousin and 
others employed it with great force. While we 
would not be satisfied with it taken alone, in 
connection with the other proofs it is certainly 
very valuable. It fully establishes the following 
facts : (1) That existence is a necessary element 
in the idea of God. (2) That the infinite is re- 
quired as a correlate of the finite. (3) That 
man is necessarily a dependent being. There 
can not be a dependent being without an inde- 
pendent one. Man is a dependent being. 
Therefore God is an independent one. 

THE COSMOLOGICAL PROOF. 

The word cosmoiogical is derived from the 
Greek xoafio^, the world, and Uyo(:, discourse, 
and it means a discourse about the world. It is 
that science which treats of the world as con- 
tingent, finite and dependent. It does not deal 
with purpose or design in nature, but simply 



CULTURA. 97 

with the phenomena of the universe as origi- 
nated and dependent being. It is sometimes 
called the argument a "posteriori^ as the ontolog- 
ical proof is called the argument a priori. 

This is the argument from cause to effect, and 
doubtless the most ancient of all philosophical 
arguments to prove the existence of God. The 
universe taken as a whole is an effect. Prof. 
Huxley says : ^^ Astronomy leads us to contem- 
plate phenomena, the very nature of which 
demonstrates that they must have had a begin- 
ning, and that they must have an end.'' There 
can not be an effect without an adequate cause. 
This universe is an effect. Therefore back 
of it there is an adequate cause for its exist- 
ence. 

A cause is that which produces a certain 
effect. It is not that which precedes an event, 
but that which produces it. It is the connection 
between action and its result. It is necessary 
to be specific just here, for efforts have been 
made to destroy the force of this argument. It 
has been claimed that it only denotes an order 
of succession, and no efficiency to bring about 
the result at all involved. We can show, how- 



98 CULTUEA. 

ever, that the necessary idea of cause includes 
the power to bring about a certain result. 

The proposition that every event must have 
a cause rests upon a self-evident and necessary 
judgment of the human mind. It is not simply 
evident, but it is self-evident. It is one of 
those primary truths which shines in its own 
light, and with absolute authority. Every man 
obtains the idea of cause from his own con- 
sciousness and experience. He knows that he 
himself is the cause of thought, volition, and 
action. He also observes causes in the outer 
world, and necessarily obtains the idea of causa- 
tion. It is absolutely impossible to conceive 
of anything as having a beginning without a 
cause. Ex nihilo nihil fit. Whatever begins to 
be is an eflPect, and it must have back of it a 
cause sufficient to produce it. The skeptic had 
as well try to lift himself to the moon by his 
boot straps as to abolish the law of causation. 

This universe is finite and dependent, and 
can not have the ultimate cause of its existence 
in itself. Everything, so far as we are able to 
understand it, is dependent upon something 
else, and we are compelled to seek outside of 



CULTURA. 99 

the universe the primary cause of the whole 
system of nature. When Voltaire was asked 
to become an atheist, he replied : " The universe 
embarrasses me ; I can not see how a watch can 
exist without a maker." If a man were ex- 
ploring Central Africa, and find a deck of cards, 
he would be certain that another man had been 
there. It would not be necessary to see the 
man, but the work of the man would be suffi- 
cient. If he were to find a fine painting, he 
would necessarily conclude that the painter was 
sufficiently intelligent to account for the marks 
of intelligence found in the production. We 
may safely present the following syllogism: 
Marks of intelligence, wherever found, are the 
ultimate products of mind. This universe 
shows many marks of intelligence. Therefore, 
this universe has mind for its ultimate cause. 
No other substances are known to man ex- 
cept matter and mind. There is nothing better 
established by science than the fact that inertia 
is a universal property of matter. Matter; at 
rest can not move itself, nor can it stop itself 
when once in motion. What, then, gave the 
universe motion? The only reply that can be 



iOO CULTURA. 

given to this is the fact that mind first set the 
universe moving. 

Man, the highest intelligence in this world, 
had a beginning. J. S. Mill, the great logician, 
declared that the laws of nature could not ac- 
count for their own origin. Much less can 
they account for the origin of mind. There 
are three beginnings for which we have to find 
the true and efficient cause : (1) The beginning 
of matter ; (2) the beginning of life ; (3) the be- 
ginning of mind. It is very evident that the 
first two beginnings required an intelligent 
cause; and it is very evident that the third 
beginning never could have been without an 
intelligent cause as creator. The scientific evi- 
dence is conclusive that the race of man had a 
beginning. 

Man as an effect is a dependent being. He 
is also an intelligent being, and has a free will. 
His will is sufficiently free to make him the 
cause of many effects. Man as an effect be- 
comes also a cause. There is also personality 
and unity in man as an effect, and these imply 
personality and unity in the primary cause of 
man's existence. We thus reach the following 



CULTUKA. 101 

syllogism: Personality, unity, intelligence and 
free-will in an effect imply personality, unity, 
intelligence and free-will in the primary cause. 
Man as an effect possesses personality, unity, 
intelligence and free-will. Therefore, the ulti- 
mate cause of man's existence is a personality 
possessing unity, free-will and intelligence. 

THE TEL.EOLOGICAL PROOF. 

The word teleology is derived from the Greek 
z€X£0(:j the end, and ?^6yo^j a discourse; and it 
is the science which treats of order, purpose 
and adaptation of means to ends in nature. It 
is sometimes called the argument from design; 
and it reasons from the evidence of intelligent 
design in nature back to an intelligent designer 
at the beginning. 

The early Greek philosophers observed marks 
of order, plan and purpose in nature, and argued 
that the author of nature must be an intelligent 
being. Socrates impressed upon the minds of 
his students the fact that the whole universe 
bore evidence of adaptation and design ; that 
man himself must be the masterpiece of a great 
artificer; and that the universe was not the 



102 CULTURA. 

result of chance, but of intelligence. Cicero, 
the great orator, was powerfully impressed with 
these facts, and beautifully illustrated them in 
his work called De Natura Beorum, 

We mean, then, by final cause or design the 
predetermined arrangement of the forces of 
nature to accomplish certain ends. The end 
to be accomplished was in the mind of the 
maker long before it became objective. Angelo 
had the plan of the world-renowned statue of 
Moses in his mind before it became objective 
in the massive marble. Any student who 
looks upon this wonderful work of art can not 
otherwise than reason from such marvelous de- 
sign back to an intelligent designer. The 
human mind is so constituted that it must 
study man in his works ; and it is equally nat- 
ural for it to study God in his works. The 
universe certainly has impressed upon it the 
finger-prints of the Almighty, and bears upon 
its face the marks of design. 

In the adaptation of the world for the abode 
of man we find many marks of design. The at- 
mosphere and the lungs are exactly suited to 
each other. Any change whatever in the qnan- 



CULTURA. 103 

tity of either oxygen or nitrogen would be dis- 
astrous to all air-breathing animals. The fish 
live in water, and have gills exactly suited to the 
composition of water. If these things had been 
simply the result of chance, man might have 
been placed in the sea, and fish upon the land. 

If in imagination you go back to the carbon- 
iferous age, you are unable to see any design in 
the great forest that covered the face of the 
earth. It is not, however, difficult now to see 
design in it, when we, in the mid.Nt of a cold 
winter, enjoy the heat of a bright coal fire. 
Back of the carboniferous age a benevolent 
Designer was making provision for the welfare 
of that wonderful being whom he intended to 
place upon the earth. 

In the distribution of land and water, plants 
and animals, we find many marks of design. If 
the highest mountains were in the northern 
hemisphere, and the greatest oceans in the 
north, the earth would be entirely unsuited to 
all living beings. So we find the Alps, Andes, 
and all other high mountains, exactly at the right 
place, nud the water is so distributed upon the 
globe as to advance the welfare of man. The 



104 CUJL.TURA. 

distribution of plants and animals is also signifi- 
cant. Of what use would the reindeer be in 
the torrid zone, or the camel in the frigid? 
Without dwelling upon the natures of these ani- 
mals, it is sufficient to state that they are exactly 
adapted to that portion of the world where they 
are placed. The camel is called the ship of the 
desert, and it is difficult to see how the inhabit- 
ants of the hot regions of the world could do 
without it. Chance might have reversed the 
natural order, but intelligent design has arranged 
everything for the welfare of that being who 
was to be made in the image of God. The in- 
stinct of animals is sufficient to condemn the 
doctrine of chance. While I am fully satisfied 
that scientists do not know much about the in- 
stinct of the lower animals, there is enough 
known to make it evident that instinct has back 
of it something more than simply the blind 
forces of nature. While witnessing recently the 
performance of a grizzly bear, I was fully im- 
pressed with the fact that the lower animals are 
much more intelligent than they are generally 
thought to be. The instinct of the busy bee in 
the mathematical arrangement of its comb and 



CULTURA. 105 

the manufacture of honey shows marks of de- 
sign which imply an intelligent Designer. 

The wonderful mechanism of the human body 
has been frequently appealed to as showing 
many marks of design. Man is the choicest 
product of nature, and the culminating point in 
the progress of life. No careful student of man 
can fail to see in him such wonderful design as 
would necessarily imply an intelligent Designer 
as the final cause of his existence. The great 
Newton truly said that the eye is a cure for 
atheism. If you can see in the telescope suffi- 
cient design to imply an intelligent designer, 
you can certainly see in the human eye sufficient 
design to imply the same thing. As the end to 
be accomplished by the telescope was in the 
mind of the astronomer before the instrument 
was made, so the end to be accomplished by the 
eye was in the mind of God before the creation 
of man. 

When you study the mind of man, which be- 
comes itself a designer, you reach the last link 
in the chain of design, at least so far as this 
world is concerned. If we deny purposive ac- 
tion on the part, of the human mind, we deny 



106 CULTUEA. 

consciousness as a true witness, and thus over- 
throw the foundation of all knowledge. We 
have now reached the terminal point of finality, 
and can safely insist that it necessarily has for 
its correlate intentionality. We feel perfectly 
safe in presenting the following syllogism: 
That which exhibits marks of an intelligent de- 
sign had an intelligent author. The mind of 
man exhibits marks of an intelligent design; 
therefore, the mind of man had an intelligent 
author. 

It is claimed by some that if the doctrine of 
evolution can be established, it will destroy the 
evidence from design. I do not see how this 
doctrine can aiFect the argument even if it is es- 
tablished. Teleology not only involves fore- 
sight in reference to an end, and a determination 
to accomplish it, but also a superintendency of 
all the forces by which it is accomplished. Evo- 
lution is not a cause, but only a mode, and con- 
sequently can not affect the argument. The 
argument from design has always been a favorite 
one with scientists, and the leading scientists 
who believe in evolution claim that the doc- 
trine his added as much to the argument as it 



CULTURA.. 107 

has taken from it. Even Prof. Huxley says: 
" There is a wider teleology which is not touched 
by the doctrine of evolution, but is actually 
based on the fundamental proposition of evo- 
lution/' 

THE HISTORICAIi PROOF. 

This argument is from the belief of mankind, 
as testified by the facts of history. Recent re- 
searches in history and ethnology fully justify 
the statement that if a belief in God is not 
innate with man, it is certainly connate. It 
is true that some missionaries and travelers, 
who were unwilling to believe that mankind 
could obtain any knowledge of God except from 
the Bible, have reported that they found tribes 
entirely destitute of the theistic idea. But a 
more careful knowledge of the language and 
literature of such tribes has shown that the 
first reports were erroneous. While the idea 
in some tribes may be crude and grotesque, it 
does not destroy the fact that mankind univer- 
sally feel a dependence upon a higher being. 
If indeed it can be found that there are excep- 
tions to the rule, it does not invalidate the 



108 OULTURA. 

force of the rule itself. It is universally ad- 
mitted that man has the organ of tune, yet you 
will find men who do not sing, or take any 
interest whatever in music. It is safe to say 
that humanity has ever felt the need of a 
Supreme Being. 

" Every human heart is human, 
And even in savage bosoms 
There are longings, yearnings, strivings, 
For the good they comprehend not ; 
And the feeble hands and helpless, 
Groping blindly in the darkness. 
Touch God's right hand in that darkness, 
And are lifted up and strengthened." 

Comparative philology has been a great sup- 
port to the historical argument in favor of the 
Divine Existence. It is said that the Aryan 
race has always had a tendency to polytheism ; 
yet we find in all the Indo-European lan- 
guages monotheism clear back of all polythe- 
istic notions. The Sanskrit word for God is 
Byu ; the Greek, ^e6(: ; the Latin, Jov ; and the 
German, Zio. In the oldest documents of the 
Aryan race this word is used to denote the 
highest Deity and the Father of gods and men. 
This fact to my mind is very significant, and 



CUL.TURA. 109 

it shows that the whole Aryan race at one time 
believed in the Supreme Being. 

We may account for the theistic idea among 
the races of men in the following ways; (1) 
God at the beginning gave man a revelation 
of himself. Even J. S. Mill claimed that if 
there were a God, it was probable that he had 
revealed himself to man. (2) There is a com- 
mon tendency among men to retain and trans- 
rait the idea when once presented. (3) Man 
instinctively depends upon a higher being, 

THE PROVIDENTIAL PROOF. 

This argument is founded upon the evidence 
of a moral government among men. As the 
spirit influences the body, but is to us unseen, 
so God in his providence governs this world, 
although he is to us unseen. Any careful 
student of the world^s advancement can not 
fail to see the providential guidance of God 
in the progress of humanity. The very things 
which have appeared as ruinous to a nation 
have been the means of its rapid advancement. 
The civil war in America appeared perfectly 



110 CULTURA. 

disastrous to republican institutions, yet it 
was really a means of unifying the country, 
and the United States has made more rapid 
progress since than ever before. God makes 
even the wrath of man praise him. 

How different is this view of the world from 
that advocated by pessimism. Schopenhauer, 
the great prophet of this school, claims that 
man is befooled by hope, and dances into the 
arms of death. He looks upon human life and 
upon man as a failure, and thinks that it would 
have been better if man had never been born. 
If all men believed this doctrine, it would be an 
eternal bar to all human progress. Under the 
benign influence of a faith in the providential 
government of God, the highest ethical systems 
of the world have been developed. The reign 
of atheism in France during the last part of 
the eighteenth century shows that when a 
nation becomes thoroughly atheistic it is pre- 
pared for a reign of terror. It unchains an- 
archic forces, and demoralization immediately 
commences its ruinous work. All persons, 
then, who believe in the progress of civiliza- 
tion must advocate the theistic idea. 



CULTURA. Ill 

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROOF. 

The word psychology is derived from the 
Greek (poxrjj the soul, and Xoyo^y a discourse, 
and it is the science of the faculties of the 
human soul as known to consciousness. As the 
eye implies the existence of light, so the relig- 
ious instincts of man imply a light from above. 
The religious nature of man is as real as the 
physical ; and as the physical implies the exist- 
ence of the material world, so the spiritual 
implies the existence of the spiritual world. 
Every man knows the existence of mind by 
his own consciousness; and while he is not 
directly conscious of God, he is conscious of 
the existence of faculties which cause him to 
reach out for the Infinite. The soul has a 
conscious dependence upon a higher Being, 
and feels that this world can not fully satisfy 
its wants. 

Man is so constituted that he needs guidance. 
The history of the race as well as that of the 
individual shows that man is not a sufficient 
guide in himself. He must be placed under 
law. There can not be law without a law-giver, 



112 CULTURA. 

Therefore, the Author of man's nature is a Law- 
giver. But man's nature not only demands 
law, but it demands moral law, and this implies 
that man's Creator is a moral Law-giver. The 
faculties of the human mind are such that they 
demand an intellectual and moral guide to secure 
their complete development. The God of 
nature and the God of revelation has given a 
system by which humanity can reach perfection. 

THE ETHICAL PROOF. 

This evidence is based upon the fact that man 
has a conscience. I do not think that conscience 
teaches the right, but it is certainly a correct 
guide in the region of the motives. It is that 
faculty of the mind by which one perceives and 
feels the right or wrong in the intention and 
the choice. The question which now presents 
itself to us is. Why has man such a guide ? We 
can not discard the intuitive principle of causal- 
ity ; and as we find man with such a guide in his 
own bosom, we must conclude that its cause is 
an intellectual and moral guide. 

Conscience is not only a guide, but it is also a 
ruler and 2l judge. It sits in judgment upon our 



CULTURA. 113 

actions, and if we are not obedient to its author- 
ity it lashes us with the intensest fury. The 
little word ought has made cowards of some of 
the greatest conquerors of the world. The ex- 
istence of this ruler and judge in the constitution 
of man implies a Ruler and Judge over the affairs 
of the universe. We find ourselves amenable to 
a law which is not the product of our wills, but 
which is irrevocably imposed upon us, and the 
violation of which brings upon us the greatest 
misery. This testifies to the existence of a 
moral Law-giver who has written man's duty in 
his inmost nature. 

Man's moral nature thus connects him with a 
moral system, which has been established by the 
Ultimate Cause of all existence. In the study 
of self, man finds a purpose not his own, which 
he knows himself frequently to resist; but it is 
felt in his nature, and he can not get rid of the 
idea that he ought to be a good man. The fact 
that man has a purpose connected with a great 
moral system makes him think of a moral jour- 
poser as the Author of his being and that of all 
other moral beings. We feel that there is a 
moral government over this world, and that we 



114 CULTUEA. 

are under obligations to it. In the conflicts be- 
tween good and evil we know that we ought to 
choose the good and reject the evil ; and what- 
ever the consequences may be, those who follow 
conscience will always follow what they believe 
to be right. The eternal ought lifts man far 
above utilitarianism. He feels under obligations 
to that power, not ourselves, which makes for 
righteousness. 

From the relation of the moral law to the 
happiness of man, the philosopher Kant pre- 
sented an argument in favor of the Divine Ex- 
istence. He claimed that the moral law, viewed 
as an original and unconditional command, man- 
ifested itself within man as a categorical imper- 
ative. We are under obligations to the moral 
idea, and really exist for morality and happiness. 
To the moral law we are bound with an impera- 
tive that admits of no dissent, and to happiness 
we are bound by certain capacities, desires and 
adaptations. The moral law compels us to seek 
the happiness of others as well as our own, and 
we feel that we are not capable of gaining for 
ourselves and for others the happiness for which 
nature has adapted men. We are compelled. 



CULTURA. 115 

therefore, by an act of the practical reason, to 
assume the existence of a moral Author and 
Governor of the universe and future state, in 
order to reconcile and complete those elements 
which appear in human nature. 

A powerful argument for the Divine Exist- 
ence can be built upon the instincts of con- 
science. When we study the instincts of the 
lower animals (for example, those of the bee, ant, 
and beaver), we find them working through a 
wonderful agency towards a distant purpose. If 
we are true to science, we will not fail to find in 
the instincts of conscience that which causes 
man to work as if the approval of God was the 
chief end of life. The instincts of conscience 
seem, then, to point to God as a person ; for we 
care nothing about pleasing that which is blind 
and destitute of personality. But we feel our 
dependence upon God, and are anxious to obey 
his commandments. We instinctively feel that 
by doing right we are getting closer and closer 
to him ; and that we can become so much assim- 
ilated to his character that we will ultimately 
see him as he is. This harmonizes with the 
teaching of the apostle John when he states 



116 CULTURA. 

that we are now the sons of God, but that when 
Jesus comes we will be like him and see him as 
he is (I. John iii. 2). 



(©HAPJUBi^ y. 

Nature and a Future State. 

All persons who think at all must be inter- 
ested in the great question of a future state. 
Life is short, and man can not avoid thinking 
of his destiny at the consummation of the pres- 
ent state of existence. All light that can be 
thrown upon this subject is of interest, no dif- 
ference whence it is derived. I do not design 
in the present chapter to call attention to the 
Biblical evidence, but only to the natural evi- 
dence in support of the Biblical doctrine of a 
future state 

THE VISIBLE UNIVERSE. 

It is now a well established fact in science 
that the visible universe had a beginning. If 
it be all that there is, then clearly the law of 
continuity, of which scientists have so much to 
say, has been broken. If, however, the visible 
universe be only a small portion of the domin- 
ions of the infinite, then the invisible universe 

117 



118 CULTURA. 

may account for the existence of the visible, and 

the law of continuity be preserved. 

Science not only teaches the origin of the 

visible universe from the invisible, but it also 

teaches that this visible universe will come to 

an end. 

" All worldly shapes shall melt in gloom, 
The sun himself must die, 
Before this mortal shall assume 
His immortality." — Campbell. 

There is going on in the visible universe a 
constant dissipation of energy, and the time 
must come when it will be exhausted. Man 
may remain in the material universe a long 
time, but the great catastrophe must ultimately 
come. Our system is rapidly expending its 
very life and energy, and even the great sun 
himself is growing cold. This is true of the 
entire visible universe; and if man is destined 
anywhere to find an eternal home, it must be in 
the invisible universe. 

The facts before us lead us to conclude that 
the visible universe is connected to the invisible 
by bonds of energy, and that the invisible is 
capable of receiving this energy and transform- 
ing it. Man is, therefore, by certain organs 



CULTUBA. 119 

connected to the invisible universe, and the 
present state is only preparatory to an eternal 
state. Without this conclusion, we not only 
violate the law of continuity, but we charge the 
Creator with consummate folly in bringing into 
existence an order of being without purpose, 
and forever sinking it into the shades of anni- 
hilation. But such can not be the case, for the 
order and adaptation in the visible universe for- 
bid it. Man will continue to live amid the war 
of elements, 4ihe wreck of matter, and the crush 
of worlds. 

'^Eternal process moving on 

From state to state the spirit walks, 
And these are but the shatter'd stalks, 
Or ruin'd chrysalis of one."— Tennyson. 

THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. 

It is now the position of the greatest scien- 
tific thinkers that there is something besides 
matter in the universe that has objective reality. ^ 

Light, heat, magnetism, and in fact all the 
forces of nature have objective existence as well 
as the material or stuff of the universe. We 
believe in the objective reality of matter, 
because it is an experimental truth that it can 



120 CULTURA. 

neither be increased nor diminished in quantity. 
For this reason Stewart and Tait, in their work 
on The Unseen Universe, use the expression, 
" conservation of matter." 

As we must admit the objective reality of 
matter, we are also forced to admit the reality 
of whatever else may also in the same sense be 
conserved. It is an experimental fact that the 
law of conservation can also be applied to the 
forces of nature, and we must then conclude 
that the forces of nature have objective reality. 
Scientists are fond of using the terms matter 
and energy, and in them comprehend every- 
thing. Matter is inert, and it must then depend^ 
upon energy for all of its movements. That 
which causes its movements can not, then, be 
less real than the matter moved. 

We are now at liberty to apply this law of 
the conservation of energy to the mind itself, 
and insist upon its existence as a reality in the 
unseen universe. The mind of man comes in 
contact with the material universe to an extent 
that the organ of memory treasures up the facts. 
When the visible universe has become defunct, 
aud its energy has passed into the unseen, the 



CULTURA. 121 

unseen universe will be full of energy ; and 
the spirit of man will be full of energy, and 
free to exercise its functions, retaining its hold 
upon the past through the faculty of memory, 
and continuing its existence as a conscious 
entity. 

"Vital spark of heavenly flame, 
Quit, oh, quit this mortal frame ! 
Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying ! 
Oh, the pain, the bliss of dying ! 
Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife, 
And let me languish into life ! 

"Hark ! they whisper — angels say, 
* Sister spirit, come away ! ' 
What is this absorbs me quite. 
Steals my senses, shuts my sight ; 
Drowns my spirits, draws my breath ? 
Tell me, my soul, can this be death ? 

"The world recedes ; it disappears 1 
Heaven opens to my eyes ! — my ears 
With sounds seraphic ring. 
Lend, lend your wings ! I mount ! I fly ! 
O Grave ! where is thy victory ? 
O Death ! where is thy sting ?"— Pope. 



In the material world we find perfect order. 
Beauty and harmony are strikingly apparent 
in all parts of the material universe. Every- 



122 CULTURA. 

thing seems to be in its place, and accomplish- 
ing the end for which it was designed. In the 
solar system the attraction of gravitation is 
reversely in proportion to the square of the dis- 
tance; and the squares of the periodic times 
of the planets' revolutions around the sun are 
exactly proportionate to the cubes of their dis- 
tances. Throughout the great system every, 
thing works in perfect harmony, and nothing 
is permitted to interfere with the beneficial 
influence of the different bodies. If this were 
not the case, the system of nature would soon 
be thrown into confusion, and the inhabitants 
of the world be deprived of their enjoyments. 
If we study carefully the arrangements con- 
nected with this earth alone, we find the same 
order, and positive evidence that all was de- 
signed to promote the welfare of rational 
beings. The composition of the atmosphere 
is such as to adapt it to the lungs; and any 
change in its present composition would be 
disastrous to all life upon this planet. The 
same thing can be said in reference to the 
composition of water and the inhabitants of 
the briny deep. The position of the mountain 



CULTURA. 123 

ranges and the water-courses shows how sys- 
tematically everything is arranged in the material 
world. 

Before the invention of the microscope and 
telescope it might have been contended that all 
beyond the range of human eye was confusion. 
But these instruments enable us to know that 
such is not the case. Even in the eye of the 
minutest insect the polished globules are so 
arranged as to attract the attention and admir- 
ation of all investigators in this department of 
science. The telescope has revealed the same 
order beyond the range of the natural eye that 
we find in the solar system. With the facts 
before us, we are safe in concluding that there 
is perfect order and system in the material 
world, and that all was designed to promote 
the happiness of intelligent beings. 

When, however, we study the moral world 
we find that all this is reversed. Nation has 
dashed against nation, and the earth has been 
deluged with human blood. If we could pic- 
ture the scenes of human suffering and blood- 
shed connected with the rise and fall of the 
great eastern monarchies, it would be sufficient 



L^l^ 



124 CULTURA. 

to make even a demon blush. The proud and 
haughty Xerxes leads forth two or three mill- 
ions of men to be slaughtered by the heroic 
Greeks. Alexander, fired with ambition and 
a desire to avenge his country's wrongs upon 
the Persian Empire, led his victorious armies 
through Asia, and built up a mighty empire 
upon the dead bodies of slaughtered millions. 
The same spirit finally made Rome the mistress 
of the world, but she ruled the nations by the 
sword. Space will not permit me to speak of 
Alaric, the Gothic monarch ; of Attila, the 
fierce Hun ; of the wars of Napoleon the First, 
and of the many modern conflicts which have 
been a disgrace to the nations. It is evident 
that man has in the past been governed more 
by his combativeness and destructiveness than 
by those high moral principles which God has 
placed in his nature to guide him. He has 
perverted to evil that freedom which the 
Creator gave him for his own good. If this 
life were all, it would appear that the Creator's 
purpose in the moral world has been defeated. 
But when we consider this world only a small 
part of the great plan of God's moral system, 



CtJLTUEA. 125 

we can see how the future life will remedy the 
present imperfections in the moral system. We 
are also enabled to see in the providential gov- 
ernment of this world how God makes even 
the wrath of man praise him, and has so utilized 
the movements of mankind as to advance civil- 
ization. 

It is evident that there is progress on the 
part of humanity, and that the mind of man, 
unperverted, tends to intellectual and moral 
perfection. There really seems to be no limit 
to the excursions of intellect, and man is con- 
stantly making new discoveries in the great 
system of nature. Death soon overtakes him 
in his progress, and his work is left unfinished. 
The great Newton felt that in the world of 
discovery and progress he had been only a 
school-boy gathering up shells on the seashore, 
while the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered 
before him. The same thing is true with men 
engaged in works of benevolence. Just when 
Ihey feel best qualified for their great work, it 
is cut short by the swift messenger — death. 
As God has so constituted the human mind 
that it can tend to intellectual and moral per- 



126 CTJLTUEA. 

fection, it must be that there is a future state 
where the great powers of man can be more 
fully unfolded. 

" Some (]ay Love shall claim his own ; 
Some day Eight ascend his throne ; 
Some day hidden Truth be known ; 
Some day— some sweet day." 

— Lbwis J. Bates. 

INSTINCTIVE ANTICIPATIONS OF A FUTUEE 
STATE. 

There is implanted in nature an instinct- 
ive anticipation of a future state. He is not sat- 
isfied with his present enjoyments, nor is there 
anything in this world which will perfectly satis- 
fy man. A young man starts in life, and thinks 
that when he earns ten thousand dollars he will 
be happy. He accomplishes the object of his 
desire, and is no better satisfied than when he 
commenced. No amount of money in this world 
will satisfy him. The same thing is true in 
acquiring knowledge, and no amount of erudi- 
tion will satisfy the longings of the human soul. 
Was Archimedes satisfied with his great dis- 
covery? Certainly not. It only stimulated 
him to further progress. The discoveries of 



CULTURA. 127 

Newton and Franklin so stimulated the mind of 
man that wonderful progress has been made in 
scientific pursuits. The present and the past do 
not satisfy the longings of the human soul, but 
man is always anticipating something better in 
the future. 

" Hope springs eternal in the human breast ; 
Man never is, but always to be blest. 
The soul, mneasy and confined from home, 
Rests and expatiates in a life to come." 

It is natural for man to desire a future state 
of existence, and he shrinks with horror at the 
idea of annihilation. In the study of the 
(Constitution of man we find that the Creator has 
given him no natural desire that he has not pro- 
vided some legitimate means for its satisfaction. 
Nothing has been created in vain. Man has 
sight, but light was created for its satisfaction, 
and the organ of sight is adapted to the light, 
which is external to it. The sense of hearing 
has sound for its counterpart, and the sound is 
external to it. Man was created with the sense 
of taste, and food is designed for its satisfaction. 
As God has made such wise provisions for man's 
longings and desires, it must be that he has also 



V 



128 CULTU^A. 

made such provisions for man's instinctive de^ 
sire for a future state. There is no stronger de- 
sire in the constitution of man than his desire 
for a future life. You seldom converse with a 
man who has given up all hope in this life who 
does nofc anticipate a better state of things in 
the uns?en world. I, of course, speak of per- 
sons who have lived right. 

"It must be so. Plato, thou reasonest well. 
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 
This longing after immortality ? 
Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror 
Of falling into naugl)t? Why shrinks the soul 
Back on herself, and startles at destruction ? 
'T is the divinity that stirs within us ; 
'Tis Heaven itself that points out a hereafter, 
And intimates eternity to man." — Addison. 

THE SUBSTANTIAL NATURE OF THE SPIRIT 

OF MAN. 

Plato, in his Phsedon, discusses the question 
as to whether the relation of the soul to the 
body is tliat of harmony to a harp, or of a 
rower to a boat. Plato and his school believed 
in the doctrine of immortality, and Greek liter- 
ature is full of it. Modern science has made 
plain the position of the great Greek philosopher, 



CtJLTURA. 129 

and it clearly shows that the spirit of man is 
something more than simply harmony to a harp. 
Beale, Helmholtz, and Lotze have placed scien- 
tific facts before the world which are of immense 
value on this question. Even Prof. Huxley ad- 
mits that life is the cause of organization, and 
not organization the cause of life. The cause 
must exist before the eflFect, and it certainly may 
exist also after it. The musician lives before 
the music he produces, and he may also live 
after it. The boat may be destroyed, and the 
rower live. So the body of man may go back 
to dust, and the spirit return to God who gave it. 
The spirit of man is an immaterial substance 
having subsistence and life in itself. Dr. Car- 
penter, in his Mental Physiology, claims that 
man has influential nerves, as well as those 
which are simply automatic. He is, then, some- 
thing more than automatic; he is a free moral 
agent. Science teaches that neither the auto- 
matic nor influential nerves can originate their 
own motion. There must then be back of them 
an agent which gives them action. This agent 
is an indestructible monad, if I may use this 
term ; the substantial cause and essence of or- 



130 CULTTJRA. 

ganization, and the axis of all thought and 
action. Leibnitz, Goethe, and the greatest 
thinkers of the world have advocated this doc- 
trine. 

The facts of consciousness go to show that 
the spirit is an entity, and superior to material 
organization. The senses do not go beyond the 
phenomena of material bodies; but the mind 
takes cognizance of immaterial ratios, and pre- 
sents ideas purely spiritual. It apprehends uni- 
versals, genus and species, necessary truths and 
final cause. This is purely a spiritual action, 
and from its nature we must determine the char- 
acter of the agent. The agent as spiritual is one 
of the indestruclibles in nature, and must live 
after its separation from the body. 

It is the spirit, not the body, that continues 
man's identity. In the common language of 
life, we recognize the spirit as the person proper. 
We talk as did Socrates when we speak of the 
different members of the body as belonging to 
us ; but we recognize in the person proper some- 
thing above these members. Even my brain be- 
longs to me, but my personality is beyond my 
brain. Ferrier has shown that even if one lobe 



CULTURA. 131 

of the brain be entirely removed it does not de- 
stroy mental action. The power with which 
man clings to his identity amid the changes the 
body is constantly undergoing shows the superi- 
ority of personality itself to all material organi- 
zation. We are not willing to sink our person- 
ality into that of another, no difference what 
may be the character of the other person. We 
hold on to personality even to death, and an- 
ticipate its continuance after death. If the 
crawling caterpillar can pass through its chrysalis 
state, and become a gorgeous butterfly, bathing 
its wings in the pure air of heaven, then man 
can surely pass through the valley of death, and 
arise to a life far more glorious than that of the 
butterfly. 

Life has been compared to the stars that fall, 
And death considered as ending all. 
But it is more like the star that sets ; 
For it will rise from death's entangling nets. 

CONSCIENCE. 

Conscience clearly points to an immortal des- 
tiny for man. He has interwoven in his consti- 
tution powers, principles and feelings which 
cause him to improve in virtue, and seek the 



132 CULTURA. 

welfare of others. The moral powers of mao, 
like his intellectual, are capable of great im- 
provement. Both ancient and modern history 
furnish us with striking examples of wonderful 
moral development on the part of men. They 
followed their conscientious convictions when 
subjected to the greatest torture. Even the 
most delicate women have suflPered themselves to 
be thrown to wild beasts, rather than sacrifice 
their convictions of right. Conscience, of 
course, has to be enlightened by proper intellec- 
tual culture ; but the way in which it clings to 
the highest convictions certainly shows that it 
is related to the unseen universe. It does not 
tell us what the right is ; it simply deals with 
the intention and choice ; and is that faculty of 
the mind by which we perceive and feel the 
right and wrong in the intention and the choice. 
When it is enlightened with the highest truth, 
it gives man a solar light, and his face may 
shine like that of an angel. Stephen is a strik- 
ing example of a conscience that is very close to 
even the throne of God itself. 

Christianity has developed the greatest moral 
heroes, because it is the highest truth evep re* 



CULTURA. 133 

yealed to man. Next to the Master himself, 
Paul furnishes one of the best examples. He is 
an example of everything that is noble, heroic, 
and benevolent in human conduct. After he 
became a Christian, he spent the rest of his life 
in promoting the best interests of mankind. To 
accomplish his noble work, he parted with his 
friends and native country, and spent his life in 
preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. He suf- 
fered all kinds of persecutions, but did not let 
anything stand in the way of his great mission. 
The perils of robbers, of the sea, of the Gen- 
tiles, and even of his own countrymen, only 
stimulated him to greater energy in the prosecu- 
tion of his noble work. He did not even shrink 
from the martyr's crown, as he knew that God 
had laid up for him a crown of life in his eternal 
kingdom. 

Howard is another example of benevolent en- 
terprise on the part of a man fired with zeal for 
Christian work. He traveled over Europe in 
the prosecution of his benevolent work, and ex- 
posed himself to all kinds of dangers. He went 
five times through Holland, four times through 
Germany, three times through France, twice 



134 CULTURA. 

through Italy, once through Spain, and traveled 
also in other countries, surveying everywhere 
the haunts of misery, and distributing benefits 
to mankind wherever he appeared. In dun- 
geons, jails and hospitals he spent most of his 
time, and he did much in bringing about a refor- 
mation in the management of these institutions. 

From realm to realm, with cross and crescent crown'd, 

Where'er mankind or misery are found, 

O'er burning sands, deep waves, or wilds of snow, 

Mild Howard journeying seeks the house of woe. 

Down many a winding step to dungeons dank, 

Where anguish wails aloud and fetters clank ; 

To caves bestrewed with many a mouldering bone, 

And cells where echoes only learn to groan ; 

Where no kind bars a whispering friend disclose, 

No sunbeam enters, and no zephyr blows — 

He treads, inemulous of fame or wealth. 

Profuse of toil and prodigal of health ; 

Leads stern-eyed justice to the dark domains, 

If not to sever, to relax the chains ; 

Gives to her babes the self-devoted wife, 

To her fond husband liberty and life. 

Onward he moves ! disease and death retire. 

And murmuring demons hate him and admire. 

— Dabwin. 

We may look at conscience from another 
standpoint, and it equally points to the invisible 
world. Take for example those persons who 
had no fear of punishment in this world, but 



CULTURA. 135 

died with the most fearful forebodings of coming 
retribution. According to Sir Thomas More, 
Richard III., who murdered his royal nephews, 
was so tormented by conscience that he had no 
peace day or night. His dreams so disturbed 
him that he would rave throughout the night 
like a madman about his chamber. Charles IX. , 
of France, is another example. He was induced 
to order the terrible massacre on St. Bartholo- 
mew's, when thousands of Protestants were 
butchered in cold blood. After that horrible 
night he had no peace of mind, but was the sub- 
ject of great torments both in mind and body. 
We learn from D'Aubigne that he would imag- 
ine through the night that he could hear groans 
similar to those heard on the night of the horri- 
ble massacre. The poet thus describes the con- 
dition of the mind under such circumstances : 

Conscience, the torturer of the soul, unseen, 
Does fiercely orandish a sharp scourge within. 
Severe decrees may keep our tongues in awe, 
But to our thoughts what edict can give law ? 
Even you yourself to your own breast shall tell 
Your crimes, and your own conscience be your hell. 

Victor Hugo, in Les Miserables, gives a 
graphic description of the power of conscience. 



136 CULTURA. 

Jean Valjean is the principal character in this 
noted work. He had escaped from the galleys, 
and become the mayor of a city. Another man, 
who looked like him, was tried and condemned 
in his place. Then came the struggle with con- 
science. Must he confess, and give up all his 
benevolent enterprises, or let the innpcent suffer ? 
Conscience said. Confess ; and he did confess. 
Hugo says: "Let us take nothing away from 
the human mind. Suppression is evil. Certain 
faculties of man are directed towards the un- 
known. The unknown is an ocean. What is 
conscience? The compass of the unknown." 

" The dread of something after death — 
The undiscovered country, from whose bourne 
No traveler returns — puzzles the will ; 
And makes us rather bear the ills we have 
Than fly to others that we know not of. 
Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all." 

— Hamlet. 

THE UNIVERSAL BELIEF OP MANKIND IN A 
FUTURE STATE. 

The doctrine of a future state of rewards and 
punishments was believed in by the ancient 
Egyptians, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Babylonians, 
Grcv^ks, Ronans, and in fact by all the nations 



CULTUKA. 137 

of antiquity. The doctrine of Zoroaster largely 
prevailed in Media, Babylonia, Assyria and 
Persia, and there can be no question in reference 
to his belief in immortality and a future state. 
It is even claimed by some that the New Testa- 
ment doctrine of rewards and punishments was 
derived from Zoroaster and the Persians. If 
this were true, it would not affect the doctrine, 
for Zoroaster taught a great deal of truth. 
Christ did not come to destroy any truth which 
existed before his mission, but he came to give 
force and vitality to all truth. The writings of 
the early Greek and Roman poets show that 
those nations firmly held to the belief that the 
righteous would be rewarded after death, and 
the wicked punished. Homer describes the de- 
scent of Ulysses into hell, and Minos, in the 
shades below, distributing justice to the dead 
assembled around his tribunal, and deciding the 
everlasting fate of those who appeared before 
his judgment seat. The poems of Ovid and 
Virgil are in harmony with the teaching of 
Homer on this subject. 

I am satisfied that writers do not always rep- 
resent correctly the belief of many nations on 



138 CULTUEA. 

the subject of the future. Things familiar are 
used to represent the future, as this is the best 
that can be done in the imperfect language of 
man ; and nations are supposed to have a mate- 
rialistic conception of the future when really 
their ideas are more spiritual. Mohammed's 
view was not as materialistic as many are dis- 
posed to think. His representation of Paradise 
is an intensification of the happiness of this life, 
and he could not well have conveyed his 
thoughts to the Arabs in any other way. He 
believed in the spirituality of God, and must 
have had a higher conception of the future life 
than simply that of an earthly paradise. The 
North American Indians appear to have very 
material ideas of the future ; hut they believed 
in the Great Spirit, and in the land of spirits, 
and must have used earthly things simply as 
symbols of the felicity of the future state. Their 
belief, however, in a future state establishes the 
fact that the most widely scattered tribes of 
mankind have fortified their minds with the 
prospect of a happiness commensurate to their 
desires beyond the confines of this present 
world. 



CTJLTURA. 139 

E'en the poor Indian, whose untutored mind 
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind. 
Whose soul proud science never taught to stray 
Far as the Solar Walk or Milky Way ; 
Yet simple nature to his hope has given 
Behind the cloud-topt hills a humbler heaven ; 
Some safer world in depth of woods embraced, 
Some happier island in the watery waste, 
Where slaves once more their native land behold, 
No fiends torment, no Christian thirsts for gold ; 
And thinks, admitted to yon equal sky, 
His faithful dog shall bear him company. 

— Pope. 

There is no belief more fully established by 
the universal consent of mankind than is the 
doctrine of a future state. Even the skeptical 
Mr. Buckle clung to the belief in the immortal- 
ity of the soul. In his '' History of Civiliza- 
tion'^ he claims that it approaches nearer a cer- 
tainty than does any other belief 

" Sure there is none but fears a future state ; 
And when the most obdurate swear they do not. 
Their trembling hearts belie their boasting tongues." 

— Dryden. 



She r?IGHBSip (gUliiPUl^B IN IPHB 

Study of ^eyblation^ 



PART SECOND. 

THE HIGHEST CULTURE IN THE 
STUDY OF REVELATION. 



Ohaptbi^ I. 
The Miraculous Element in the Bible. 

It is important, at the beginning of this dis- 
cussion, to clearly define the natural and super- 
natural. The word nature seems to mean 
nothing more than the properties of matter, 
according to the position of some physicists. 
In that case, man himself would belong to the 
supernatural; and the limits given to the nat- 
ural by Dr. Bushnell would be correct. I 
think, however, that it is much wiser to include 
man in the natural, and make the supernatural 
entirely superhuman. 

The common idea of miracle, that it is a vio- 
lation of the laws of nature, has caused some 
able writers to reject the miraculous. This 
position places a method of operation in the 

143 



144 CULTURA. 

place of the thing itself, and could not other- 
wise than lead to false conclusions. A careful 
study of the miracles of the Bible will lead a 
candid student to the following conclusion : 
That a miracle is a manifestation of God's 
power in behalf of his servants, or in attesta- 
tion of a revelation to man. It is' a divine 
work for a divine purpose, and above the un- 
aided powers of man. We have no reason to 
think that a miracle is wrought without means ; 
but such means are entirely out of the reach 
of man. Miracles are not against nature any 
more than one natural event may be said to 
be against another; and if we were able to 
discover the laws by which they were wrought, 
it would not destroy their true character of 
attestation to divine truth, unless the means by 
which they were wrought was within the reach 
of man. 

No one can consistently deny the miraculous 
who believes in the existence of God. Even 
Mr. Jo S. Mill admits that, if there be a God, 
it is at least probable that he has revealed him- 
self to man. If God ever has in any way re- 
vealed himself to his creatures, it forever settles 



CULTURA. 145 

the question of the miraculous. A miracle can 
not, then, be looked upon as violating that 
axiom of science, that like causes, under like 
circumstances, are followed by the same effects. 
God introduces new causes, and new effects 
must be the result. 

THE BEGINNING. 

Gen. 1. The word Genesis is of a Greek 
origin, and it means exactly the same as does 
the first word of the Hebrew Bible. It takes 
us back to the beginning of miracles, when 
Jehovah created the heavens and the earth. 
It clearly distinguishes between God and that 
which he produced, and presents to us pure 
monotheism. The author of Genesis does not 
prove the existence of God, but assumes it as 
a feet, and leaves all nature to demonstrate 
the truth of his statement. The word used 
by Moses for primary creation is clearly dis- 
tinguished from another word denoting the 
making or arranging of secondary material. 
The distinction is made in Gen. ii. 3, where it 
is stated that God rested from all the works 
he had created and made. The word create 



146 CULTURA. 

is used but three times in the first chapter of 
Genesis, and it refers to the origin of matter, 
the origin of life, and the origin of the human 
soul. The length of time consumed in the 
creation of the heavens and earth is not given 
in Genesis, but it is simply stated that it was 
in the beginning. 

The person who will take the time to study 
carefully the accounts of creation given by the 
early Egyptian, Chaldean, and other pagan 
writers, will be thoroughly convinced of the 
divine origin of the Book of Genesis. These 
writers make very absurd statements, and con- 
tradict all science and common sense. What- 
ever Moses may have borrowed from ancient 
documents, it is very certain that his work was 
the product of inspiration. Genesis not only 
harmonizes with science, but it largely antici- 
pates modern science. The divisions of time 
given by Moses are in perfect harmony with 
the different periods of geological history. It 
has been truly said that the first chapter of 
Genesis is sublimity by birth, for its original 
source was the sublime Originator of the 
heavens and the earth. It is very absurd to 



CULTURA. 147 

suppose that matter could have created itself; 
much more, that it could have created spirit. If 
evolution is used in the sense of progress, we 
have no objection to it; but if it is intended 
to include spontaneous generation and the trans- 
mutation of species, it is thoroughly absurd, 
and it is a revival of the old Egyptian and 
Hindoo accounts of creation. Scientists, when 
they speak soberly, can not fail to condemn 
such nonsense. 

No doubt, when God created the first atom of 
matter, man was in the divine mind ; but it re- 
quired preparation before that being could be 
ushered into existence who was to be made in 
the image of God. The animal feeds upon the 
vegetable, and the vegetable upon the mineral ; 
but of what use was the animal, the vegetable, or 
the mineral? I answer, of no use whatever, if 
Jehovah had stopped there ; but he did not stop. 
*^ Let us make man,'^ was the language of Him 
who had power to make. " In the image of 
God created he him ; male and female created he 
them.'' The word denoting primary creation is 
here used, which indicates that man was not the 
product of a preceding species, but was the off- 



148 CULTURA. 

spring of God. No one who denies the miracu- 
lous can give a rational explanation of the first 
chapter of Genesis and the origin of man. 

THE PLAGUES OP EGYPT. 

The miracles of the Bible were not wrought 
in a corner, but in the presence of the highest 
civilization of the ages in which they were per- 
formed. At the time of the ten plagues Egypt 
was by far the most advanced nation in the 
world. Her monuments have been a marvel to 
all succeeding ages, and even in the nineteenth 
century some of the greatest minds spend a life- 
time in the study of early Egyptian civilization. 
Moses performed miracles in the presence of 
Pharaoh and his wise men, and the most compe- 
tent authorities in Egypt decided that it was the 
finger of God. It is claimed by some that the 
human mind naturally rejects miracles. I am 
perfectly satisfied that such is not the case when 
a teacher claims divine authority. On the other 
hand, the human mind is so constituted tliat it 
will not receive a religion as divine unless ac- 
companied by miracles. Man naturally expects 
God to perform works above the power of mor- 



CULTURA. 149 

tals. When Moses was sent to Egypt as God's 
messenger, it was necessary for him to work 
miracles beyond the power of the magicians to 
imitate. These miracles showed the supreme 
authority of the God of Israel, and they were 
specially directed against the idols of Egypt. 

The first miracle authenticated the mission of 
Moses, and destroyed the serpents, which, among 
the Egyptians, were objects of worship. This 
showed that the gods could not help them- 
selves, much less protect the people. The Nile 
was as sacred to the Egyptians as the Ganges is 
to the Hindoos. They drank its waters with 
reverence and delight, and even the fish in its 
waters were objects of worship. They bathed 
in its waters, and believed that there was efiicacy 
in its waves to cure disease. What must have 
been their consternation when the king at the 
head of a religious procession was marching 
to its sacred waters, and all at once beheld a 
river of blood. It is claimed that at a certain 
season in the year the waters of the Nile, by a 
natural process, assumed the appearance of blood. 
Be this as it may, the wise men of Ejypt looked 
upon the work of Moses as something more than 



150 CULTUKA. 

natural. When the magicians could not imitate 
the third plague, they confessed that the hand of 
God was in it. The Egyptians were greatly 
given to animal worship, and the plague of mur- 
rain upon their sacred cattle was a terrible blow 
to their whole system of worship. Among their 
other gods was Typhon, the god of evil. They 
even offered human sacrifices to this deity. 
Many Hebrew slaves had doubtless been offered. 
By the direction of Jehovah, Moses took a hand- 
ful of ashes from the furnace and cast it into 
the air. Instead of its averting evil, boils and 
blains came upon the people. The supremacy of 
Jehovah was established, and the bloody rites of 
Typhon were shown to be a curse. The Egyp- 
tians worshiped the heavenly bodies, and the 
sun was their supreme deity. The intense dark- 
ness that spread over the whole country was a 
rebuke to their highest form of worship, and 
showed the impotency of their highest deity. 
The king was looked upon by the Egyptians as 
a divine person, and under the special protection 
of the gods. The death of the first-born showed 
that the gods of Egypt were not able to protect 
even the royal family. The miracles of Moses 



CULTURA. 151 

were a complete triumph of Jehovah over every 
form of Egyptian worship. Egyptologists are 
coDstantly confirming the truth of the sacred 
narrative, and the miracles of Moses have really 
become a part of the authentic history of the 
world. 



Dan. vi. : As the miracles of Moses were per- 
formed in the presence of Pharaoh and his wise 
men, so the miracles at Babylon were performed 
in the presence of the highest culture of that 
age. Oriental scholars are constantly confirming 
the truths stated in the book of Daniel, and no 
man of genuine culture can question the authen- 
ticity of the historical part of Daniel. It is in- 
teresting to note how correct Daniel always is 
when he refers to any custom of the Babylonians 
or the Persians. For example, the three He- 
brew children were cast into a fiery furnace, but 
Daniel into a lions' den. Why these different 
methods of execution? We learn from profane 
history that the fiery furnace was the method of 
executing criminals among the Babylonians ; but 
the Persians were fire worshipers, and would not 



152 CULTURA. 

pollute this sacred element with a human corpse, 
but used wild animals as the means of executing 
criminals. This explains why Daniel went into 
a lions' den, and not into a 'fiery furnace. 

Darius, the Mede, was not present when Baby- 
lon was taken. Although Cyrus was commander 
of the Persian army which conquered Babylon, 
he was not yet ruler of the Medes and Persians, 
for his father and mother were both still alive. 
After the conquest of Babylon, Cyrus went to 
visit his father and mother in Persia, and his 
uncle, the Darius of Daniel, called in Media 
Cyaxares, who was the father-in-law of Cyrus, 
returned with him to regulate the affairs of the 
empire. Cyrus made him ruler over the king- 
dom. After a grand review of his army, which 
consisted of six hundred thousand foot and one 
hundred and twenty thousand horse, Cyrus left 
Babylon to lead his army to the shores of the 
Red Sea, where he intended to make other con- 
quests. It was during his absence that the 
events of the sixth chapter of Daniel took place. 
Darius only reigned two years over the Babylo- 
nian Empire, and it was during his reign that 
Paniel was cast into a den of lions. Darius 



CULTURA. 153 

found Daniel in great favor iu Babylon, and con- 
tinued him in office. His predictions in refer- 
ence to the destruction of the Babylonian Em- 
pire were, no doubt, well known to all classes 
in Bal)yIon, and were the chief topic of conver- 
sation. His great service during the reign of 
Nebuchadnezzar would also come up for discus- 
sion. The king could not fail to become ac- 
quainted with his marvelous wisdom and great 
integrity of character. His great talent for gov- 
ernment recommended him for the chief presi- 
dency of the kingdom. He did not seek office, 
but the office sought him. 

When Darius became the ruler, under Cyrus, 
of the then civilized world, he began to feel the 
cares of office and the perplexities of managing 
such a great kingdom. An increase of power is 
certain to bring with it an increase of care. 
The newly conquered provinces, as well as the 
older parts of his immense kingdom, had to be 
provided with military governors. Over the 
one hundred and twenty rulers of the provinces 
he appointed three presidents, of whom Daniel 
was chief. This selection was wise, for Daniel 
was ^ model statesman — a prime minister who 



154 CULTUKA. 

has never had an equal. He made such a good 
impression at court that Darius thought to set 
him over the whole realm. Kings and presi- 
dents are often mistaken in the estimate they 
form of men, but Darius was right. Daniel 
was one of the most excellent of earth, and one 
of the most beautiful characters found in the 
Old Testament. No appointmeut to office, how- 
ever, is satisfactory to all. Somebody is dissat- 
isfied. Great as were DanieFs talents, and pure 
as was his character, his appointment to the first 
place in the kingdom gavo great offense to the 
dignitaries of the realm. They began to devise 
some means to bring about his downfall. They 
dared not attack outright the wisdom of the 
king's appointment, and they were unable to 
find any public act of his which they could chal- 
lenge. They knew that Daniel was conscien- 
tious, and their only hope was in getting the 
king to establish a decree which would violate 
DanieFs religious convictions. This was a splen- 
did eulogium which the enemies of Daniel un- 
consciously pronounced upon his character. 
They induced the king to establish a decree 
which elevated him above God himself. It was 



CULTURA. 155 

an impious attempt to banish God from the Per- 
sian Empire for thirty days. The decree claimed 
more for Darius than the Maker of the universe 
claims for himself. God forbids our worshiping 
an image, or even an angel ; but not as did the 
king, who forbade the making of requests of 
man. There never was a more unjust or cruel 
decree. Of course Daniel's convictions required 
him to violate it. He continued to worship 
with his windows open in his chamber towards 
Jerusalem. The word used in the Septuagint 
for chamber is the same as that used to denote 
the place where the disciples met on the day of 
Pentecost. 

The enemies of truth and righteousness are 
always characterized by duplicity and cunning. 
Satan, the great enemy of God and man, is said 
in the Bible to have a face like a lamb, and yet 
speaks as a dragon. The enemies of Daniel pre- 
tended to be actuated solely by their desire to 
honor the king in urging him to pass the decree, 
while in reality their sole design was to entrap 
Daniel. When they urged their charge against 
Daniel they repeated the decree first, and got the 
king committed to it before they mentioned the 



156 CULTURA. 

name of Daniel. They knew the king's fond- 
ness for his prime minister. They charged 
Daniel with base ingratitude, when in reality 
they knew that he acted from conscientious con- 
victions. He had respect for the king, but 
could not elevate the creature above the Creator. 
He could not afford to erect a palace of loyalty 
on the grave of the religion of his fathers. The 
State needs more such men as was Daniel ; men 
who dare do right under the most trying cir- 
cumstances. Such men, instead of being trai- 
tors, are the only hope of the salvation of any 
country. The penalty for violating the decree 
was a lion's den, and into a den went Daniel. 
He went there as calmly as if going to his 
chamber to pray, for he was loyal to that King 
who was able to lock the lion's mouth, Daniel 
spent the night with the lions more happily than 
did the king in his palace. When the king 
could not save Daniel, he committed him to his 
God, and awaited the result. The next morning 
he went early to the den, and called for Daniel. 
He was not without hope, yet he trembles for 
fear that he will receive no answer except the 
echo of his own voice from the gloomy depths 



CTJLTURA. 167 

of the pit, or the growling roar of the royal ex- 
ecutioners. DaniePs answer was sweeter music 
to the king than he had ever heard at the royal 
palace. The prime minister was immediately 
taken from the den, and his accusers were imme- 
diately introduced to the lions. Some skeptics 
claim that the lions were not hungry when 
Daniel was in the den. Be that as it may, it 
is certain their appetites were all right when 
they met with the enemies of Daniel. I do not 
see how any candid student of history can read 
this narrative and question the statements of 
Daniel. It is impossible to eliminate the mirac- 
ulous from the narrative and leave any sense in it. 

NAAMAN THE SYRIAN. 

II. Kings V. 1-16 : As the miraculous element 
in the Bible has come in contact with the civiliza- 
tion of Egypt and Babylon, we now add to these 
another witness, and it is the great kingdom of 
the Syrians. The miracles of the Bible have 
stood the test in the light of the highest civili- 
zation. Naaman, whose name indicates pleas- 
antness, was the chief commander ot the Syrian 
armies. He was not only a commander, but 



158 CULTURA. 

had been a very successful military leader. He 
was a mighty man of valor, and had delivered 
Syria from the Assyrian yoke. In his wars with 
Israel he had taken captive a little maid, who 
waited on his wife. Naaman was an honorable 
man, and was, doubtless, more kind to captives 
than was common with military leaders in his 
day. At any rate, he gained the sympathy of 
the little captive girl, who was anxious for him to 
go to Israel to be cured of his terrible malady. 
While Naaman was at the summit of human 
greatness, he was a leper. There is nearly always 
something to mar greatness in this world. 
Earthly wealth and earthly fame usually have 
something connected with them to sting their 
possessor. Naaman adopted the suggestion of 
the little maid, and obtained the consent of his 
king to go to the land of Israel. He took a 
letter from his master, Ben-hadad II., to Jeho- 
ram, king of Israel, requesting him to have 
Naaman cured of the leprosy. The skeptical 
son of Jezebel and Ahab did not think of the 
prophet of the Lord in his great trouble, but 
rent his clothes, and gave expression to the great- 
est grief. He thought that the king of Syria 



CULTUEA. 159 

had asked an impossibility at bis hands, in order 
to have an excuse for declaring war against him. 
If Elisha had at that time been absent from 
Samaria, there would have been a lively time at 
the court of Israel. Elisha sent the king word 
to send Naaman to him, and that he would 
properly dispose of his case, and let them know 
that there was a prophet in Israel. 

Naaman was immediately sent to the house of 
the prophet. Elisha sent a servant to tell him 
to wash seven %imes in the river Jordan, and 
he would be cured of his malady. Naaman was 
angry at the prophet's message, for it was not in 
harmony with his ideas of propriety. As a great 
leader, he did not think that he had been treated 
with proper respect. Besides, he could not see 
any reason for doing what he was directed to do. 
The waters of Abana and Pharpar were superi- 
or to those of the river Jordan, and if it was a 
question of washing, why not wash in them ? 
The Lord's ways are not man's ways, and, as 
Elisha was the prophet of the Lord, he proposed 
to carry out the Lord's ways. The Lord had 
directed Naaman to wash in the Jordan, and no 
other washing would do him any good. Man 



160 CULTURA. 

must do just what the Lord tells him to do. 
Naaman left Samaria in a rage. 

As the Jordan was quite a distance away, 
Naaman's wrath considerably cooled down be- 
fore he reached that river. There was one re- 
deeming feature in his character for a man of his 
station, and that was that he would take advice. 
His servants had, doubtless, learned more about 
the prophet from the people of Samaria than he 
had learned from the king. They told him that 
he would have done some great thing if the 
prophet had so directed, and why not do exactly 
what the prophet did direct? They finally in- 
duced Naaman to follow the directions of the 
prophet, and he was entirely cured of his 
leprosy. 

The Syrian general was so grateful for what 
had been done for him that he went back to 
Samaria, a distance of more than fifteen miles 
from the Jordan, to express his gratitude to 
the prophet. He was not only healed in body, 
but also in spirit. He acknowledged his past 
errors, and avowed his faith in the God of 
Israel. His gratitude burst forth in a desire 
to give all the rich presents which he had 



CULTURA. 161 

brought with him to the prophet of the Lord. 
Heathen prophets exacted large sums of money 
for their pretended cures. Elisha would not 
make merchandise of his prophetic gifts, and 
he did not want to impress Naaman in any way 
that they could be purchased with money. 

Elijah and Elisha were the miracle-working 
prophets of Israel. Their miracles were so 
thoroughly tested that their reality is beyond 
dispute. Those of Elijah were performed in 
connection with^ great public acts, which could 
not fail to attract the atention of all. The 
miracles of Elijah were miracles of judgment, 
while those of Elisha were miracles of mercy. 
Elijah's mission was properly represented by 
the tempest, earthquake and fire, while that 
of Elisha is represented by the still, small voice. 
Elisha's miracles were a testimony of his gentle 
and loving nature. 

The curing of Naaman was the most noted 
miracle performed by the prophet Elisha. It 
was wrought upon a Gentile, and showed a 
sympathy in the prophet's heart which ex- 
tended beyond the bounds of Israel. It would 
not fail to attract universal attention on ac- 



162 CULTURA. 

count of Naaman's position in the kingdom 
of Syria. The attention of the kings of the 
East was attracted to the prophet, and, no doubt, 
the great miracle had a very widespread influ- 
ence for the truth. 

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 

Infidels admit that Jesus Christ was crucified 
and buried in a sepulcher. They have some 
strange ideas about the eflPect of the crucifixion, 
but more of this hereafter. They can not deny 
the historic fact that Jesus Christ was crucified 
and buried. Napoleon has said that facts are 
stubborn things. They are not only stubborn 
things, but they are the very things in which 
science and religion should constantly deal. 
Life is too important for man to spend his 
time in idle speculation. The fundamental 
feet in dispute between the infidel and the 
Christian is the resurrection of Christ from 
among the dead. The skeptic can readily see 
that the resurrection proves the divine lega- 
tion of Jesus. Hence, the sharpest discussions 
between the infidel and the Christian have 
always been in reference to the resurrection. 



CULTURA. 163 

It is claimed by some modern skeptics that 
the resurrection of Jesus was only a revivifica- 
tion after a swoon. A Scottish lady, it is «aid, 
died, to all appearances, and was buried. Soon 
after her burial a grave-robber cut off her fin- 
ger to get a ring. She revived, and frightened 
the midnight thief out of his wits, and returned 
to her liome, to the great astonishment of her 
husband and children. There is no parallel 
between this and the resurrection of Jesus. 
The woman apparently died of disease, and was 
almost immediately buried. She was in the 
grave only a few hours. Jesus was put to 
death by crucifixion, the first shock of which 
is almost certain death. During the siege of 
Jerusalem, Josephus persuaded Titus to release 
three of his friends who had been on the cross 
only a few hours. Two of them died, and it 
was only by the most tender care that one was 
saved. The iieart of our Saviour was pierced 
with a spear. There is no chance for a swoon 
when the heart is onoe pierced. Jesus was in 
the grave one day and two whole nights, so 
there can be no doubt about his being actually 
dead. If he had revived after a swoon, how 



164 CULTURA. 

could he have escaped the detection oi either 
friends or enemies? Where did he spend the 
rest of life? Skeptics generally adaiit that 
Jesus possessed a perfect character. If this be 
true, he could not have permitted his disciples 
to preach what he knew to be a falsehood. If 
his death had been only a swoon, it would not 
have been possible for him, with his pierced 
hands and feet, to pass among the disciples 
with the celerity with which he passed. This 
hypothesis is so unreasonable that the infidel, 
if he wants to be considered rational at all, 
must abandon it. 

Strauss claims that historic science requires 
all to admit that the disciples really believed 
that Jesus arose from the dead. How can the 
skeptic now dispose of the fact of the resurrec- 
tion ? In this way : He claims that while the 
disciples were honest, their belief in the resur- 
rection was a hallucination. That Mary Mag- 
dalene, the first to reach the sepulcher, had not 
entirely recovered from the disease of which 
Jesus had cured her. The facts in the gospel 
narratives are altogether against this hypothesis, 
for Jesus did not appeal to the imagination of 



CUL.TURA. 165 

his disciples, but to their senses. He ate and 
drank with them after his resurrection. Paul 
through life dealt in facts ; and we do not find 
in the history of his work any peculiar al)erra- 
tions. His first epistle to the Corinthians, 
which so fully treats of the resurrection, has 
never been questioned in reference to its authen- 
ticity. The skeptic claims that Jesus appeared 
to his friends, and not to his enemies. This 
is a mistake, for Saul of Tarsus was not a friend 
when on his way to Damascus. The Roman 
guard, the first witnesses of the resurrection, 
were certainly not friends to Jesus. 

The old theory, that the disciples took the 
body from the sepulcher while the guard slept, 
lias now but few advocates. It is a well au- 
thenticated fact that the guard were hired to 
tell this unreasonable falsehood. The enemies 
of Christianity are constantly changing ground 
in reference to the resurrection of Christ. They 
seem to feel conscious that they are in trouble, 
and do not exactly know how to get out of it. 
The more efforts they make to explain away 
the fact of the resurrection, the greater become 
their difficulties. The Christian can safely rest 



166 CULTURA. 

the truth of the Bible upon the fact of the 
resurrection. 

The infidel claims that the disciples were 
credulous, and believed in the resurrection 
without sufficient proof. They were just the 
opposite, and after the death of Jesus gave up 
all as lost. Let us call attention to one ex- 
ample — that of the doubting Thomas (John 
XX. 27-29.) 

About the time of our Saviour's appearing, 
the Jews expected their Messiah, who, they 
believed, would deliver them from subjection 
to the Gentiles, and place the Jewish power 
in the ascendant among the nations of the 
earth. They thought he would rule, as king, 
with great dignity in Jerusalem, and as a priest, 
would preside over, but not abrogate, the cere- 
monial law. They believed this, notwithstand- 
ing the plain declarations of the prophets to 
the contrary. It may be fortunate that the 
people did not understand the character of 
Christ's reign until the establishment of his 
kingdom; for if they had, they could not have 
borne the darkness and imperfections of their 
own dispensation. 



CULTURA. 167 

The disciples were also in the dark concern- 
ing the spiritual character of their Master's 
reigu. Just before his ascension to the throne 
of the universe, the disciples asked him to re- 
store the king<lom to Israel. It is not surpris- 
ing that Thomas became skeptical after the 
death of Christ; for the disciples had given 
up all hope. 

Thomas was an honest man, either in faith 
or doubt. His convictions were carried out 
without any hesitation. When Jesus, who was 
eastward of the Jordan at the death of Laz- 
arus, announced his intention of returning into 
Jud »a, Thomas said to the disciples : " Let us 
go there and die with him." On one occasion 
Jesus said : " Ye know whither I go, and 
yo know the way." Thomas immediately re- 
sponded : " Lord, we know not whither ^thou 
goest, and how can we know the way ? '' 

The character of Thomas was somewhat sim- 
ilar to that of Peter. He had not, however, 
the self-confidence of Peter. Thomas only de- 
clared fidelity to his Lord, while Peter swore 
eternal loyalty, Peter denied his Saviour; 
Thomas only doubted. Peter had to be rein- 



168 CULTURA. 

stated in his office as apostle; Thomas had 
simply to be enlightened. 

One of the most remarkable traits of human 
nature is the rapidity with which man passes 
from one sentiment to another. He can change 
in opinion, in conduct, in destiny, and surprise 
us as we recognize in him the same man. The 
persecuting Saul of Tarsus differed as much 
from Paul, the apostle, as Jean Valjean differed 

from Monsieur Madeleine, mayor of M . 

Our feelings may undergo sudden change. In- 
deed, great and sudden was the revolution of 
David's feelings when he heard the pointed 
words, "Thou art the man," as he was justly 
condemning the despoiler of the poor man's 
lamb. The words of Nathan brought about 
this great revolution. 

Thomas was skeptical ; but it was an intel- 
lectual difficulty, and not a corruption of heart. 
When Jesus appeared to him he instantly cried 
out, " My Lord and my God.'' I do not know 
that this language was ever applied to Jesus 
before; but it showed that Thomas was fully 
convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead. 
The Master appealed directly to the senses of 



CULTURA. 169 

Thomas, and the test was sufficient to satisfy 
the most determined sensationalist. If a man 
will not believe in the resurrection of Christ 
upon the evidence submitted, he would not 
believe though he saw a man raised, nor would 
he believe if he himself were to be raised from 
the dead. 



TYPoLOGir. 

The word type is derived from a Greek word 
which means to strike. It is the impression 
produced by a blow. It is used in John xx. 
25, where Thomas says : " Unless I shall see in 
his hands the print of the nails, and put my 
finger into the print of the nails , and thrust my 
hand into his side, I will not believe. '' It also 
denotes a model set before us for our imitation. 
In Phil. iii. 17, the apostles are made an exam- 
ple, or a type, for all Christians. 

The Old Testament types are shadows of good 
things to come. In Col. ii. 16,17, Paul says: 
" Let no man judge you in meat or in drink, or 
in respect to a holy day, or of the new moon, 
or of the Sabbath day, which are a shadow of 
things to come, but the body is of Christ.'' In 
Hebrews x. 1, we have the following language : 
" For the law having a shadow of good things 
to come, and not the very image of the things, 
can never with those sacrifices which they oflFer 

170 



CULTUEA. 171 

year by year continually make the comers there- 
unto perfect.'* 

From the scripture before us, it is quite evi- 
dent that nearly all the religious rites and cere- 
monies of the Old Testament were types point- 
ing forward to their antitypes in the New Testa- 
ment. The Jewish Tabernacle, with its furniture, 
gives us in type a complete outline of the whole 
scheme of redemption. We can safely say that 
the Gospel was preached in type under the Old 
Testament dispensations ; but it could not, of 
course, be preached in fact until after the devel- 
opment of its facts. 

The typological evidence of the truth of 
Christianity is, to my mind, very convincing. 
No one could make a shoe to fit the human foot 
who did not know something of the construction 
of the foot. It is also very evident that no one 
could have set up these types who did not un- 
derstand the nature and character of the anti- 
type. God alone could have such knowledge, 
and they must consequently be of divine 
origin. 



172 CULTURA. 

ADAM A TYPE OF CHRIST. 

Rom. V. 12-14 : The word Adam is of Hebrew 
origin, and denotes red earth. Adam was a 
miracle, and was introduced into this world in. a 
way in which no other man was ever introduced. 
God made him in his own image. This has di- 
rect reference to man's intellectual and moral 
faculties. His body was created out of the dust 
of the earth, and the breath of lives was 
breathed into his nostrils, and he became a liv- 
ing being (Gen. ii. 7). The word lives in the 
original indicates not only natural, but also spir- 
itual life. Profane history supports the Biblical 
narrative in reference to the origin of man's 
body. The ancient Greeks believed that their 
ancestors had descended from the soil. The 
Turanians of Europe, long before the migration 
of the Aryans, maintained that their fathers had 
emanated from the earth. The chemical analy- 
sis of man's body points to its origin. It con- 
sists of sixteen material elements, eight of which 
are metallic, and eight non-metal lie. Traces of 
a few other elements have also been discovered. 
The materialist frequently quotes Gen. ii. 7 to 



CULTURA. 173 

prove the material origin of the spirit ; but the 
original of the verse condemns his position. 
Although the mental faculties are first awakened 
by sensation, these primary ideas are the ante- 
cedents of other ideas belonging to man's rational 
nature. The primary meaning of the word 
spirit is breath, but now it is metaphorically em- 
ployed to denote man's rational nature. The 
parables of Christ are founded upon the difier- 
ence between the literal and allegorical meaning 
of words. The spirit of man possesses thought, 
feeling and volition, which are superior to the 
properties of matter. 

God supplied a demand of man's nature in 
the creation of woman — " fairest of creation ; 
last and best ! " Woman was to be man's coun- 
terpart, and this denotes her true position. She 
was not created out of the foot, to be trampled 
upon ; not out of the head, to be head of the 
family ; but from a rib near the heart, to be loved 
and protected. Skeptics have much to say 
against the rib story, but it is quite evident that 
man lost a rib, for you seldom find one satisfied 
until the lost is found. It required both the 
man and the woman to make the image com- 



174 CULTURA. 

plete ; for in the image of God created he him, 
male and female created he them. If the man 
has more head power, the woman has more heart 
power, which is really the more effectual power. 
Milton puts the following words into the 
mouth of Adam : 

" To the nuptial bower 
I led her blushing like the morn ; all heaven 
And happy constellations on that hour 
Shed their selected influence ; the earth 
Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill ; 
Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs 
Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings 
Flung rose-flung odors from the spicy slirub ; 
Disporting till the amorous bird of night 
Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening star 
On his hilltop to light the bridal lamp." 

The following is the response of Eve : 

" However, I with thee have fixed my lot, 
Certain to undergo like doom ; if death 
Consort with thee, death is to me as life ; 
So forcible within my heart I feel 
The bond of nature draw me to my own, 
My own in thee, for what thou art is mine ; 
Our state can not be severed ; we are one, 
One flesh ; to lose thee were to lose myself." 

The human species was the consummating act 
of creation, and man was placed over all to 
govern and to enjoy. 



CULTURA. 175 

The traditions of all nations point back to 
man's early innocence and happiness. The sci- 
ence of language and of ethnology teach the 
original unity of tlie race, and point to the 
Orient as man's original home. The fact of his 
fall is seen in tendencies of human nature at the 
present time, and the science of sociology con- 
firms the statements of Moses in the book of 
Genesis. A malicious spirit envied the happi- 
ness of our first parents in Eden. In their in- 
nocence their bodies might have been trans- 
formed into spiritual bodies; and like Enoch 
and Elijah they might have been prepared for 
an eternal home without ever knowing death. 
When alone, however, and least prepared to re- 
sist, the subtle serpent made his attack upon the 
woman. The Hebrew word for serpent is 
nahash, so called from its hissing, or, according 
to Taylor Lewis, from its shining appearance 
and glistening eyes. It was simply an instru- 
ment in the hands of Satan in accomplishing his 
hellish work. He, not recognizing the wide ex- 
tent of privileges that God had granted the holy 
pair, called attention only to the few restrictions. 
He wanted to make the impression that God 



176 CULTURA. 

had interfered with their personal liberty. It is 
the same argument that is used in defense of all 
the great evils of the present age. 

The woman in her reply left out two very im- 
portant words that God had used. She said, 
" We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the 
garden ; ^' but God had granted the privilege of 
eating freely of the fruit of every tree except 
the fruit of the interdicted one. She left out 
the words every and freely. We should always 
be careful and not misquote God's word. The 
fruit forbidden was that of the tree of knowl- 
edge of good and evil, which stood in the midst 
of the garden. It was not the tree of knowl- 
edge, as sometimes quoted, but the tree of 
knowledge of good and evil. It was a test of 
character and action, and consequently a marked 
tree. It was a test by which they would know 
good if they obeyed, and evil if they disobeyed. 
If they had obeyed, they would have known 
good much more than by falling into sin, and 
they would have known evil by contrast, and 
not by experience. It is a great mistake to sup- 
pose that a man can know good better by expe- 
riencing evil than he can by choosing the good 



CULTURA. 177 

at the beginning. There must be some test of 
good and evil, and the object was to develop 
conscience and character in man. 

The woman hesitated, and permitted desire to 
arise in her heart. When temptation is placed 
before man, and he hesitates, he is almost certain 
to fall. The only safe plan is to let conscience 
reign supreme, and trample under your feet the 
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the 
pride of life. The woman was fascinated with 
the promise of a development of her intellec- 
tual faculties, and the tempter threw an aureola 
of glory about the promised delights. Tempta- 
tion always carries with it promises sufficiently 
sugar-coated with truth to make them plausible. 
The w^oman yielded, and thus became a sinner. 
She stretched forth her hand, and plucked and 
ate "of that forbidden tree, whose mortal state 
brought death into the world, and all our woe.'' 

When a woman sins, she can tempt man as 
can no other being ; and of all agencies in the 
hands of the devil, she is certainly the worst. 
Adam, however, sinned with his eyes open, and 
can not in any sense be excused (I. Tim. ii. 14). 
As a general thing, when a woman sins she has 



178 CTJLTUKA. 

had greater temptation to become a sinner than 
has man ; but when she once falls, she becomes 
the greatest instrument of evil. 

There is a tendency in human nature to throw 
off responsibility on another. It is not diffi- 
cult to trace this to its source. Adam blamed 
the woman, and the woman blamed the serpent. 
There was no excuse for any in the sight of 
God. The serpent was cursed for its act, and 
the woman had to suffer a terrible penalty for 
her transgression. The Bible specially deals 
with the penalty placed upon the man. The 
word Adam is used for the first time as a proper 
name, and he is thus distinguished from the 
woman. All students of nature recognize the 
continuance of the curse. The tendency of the 
ground left to itself is to bring forth thorns and 
thistles. If it has once been cultivated by man 
and then abandoned, it is worse than the land 
upon which he never trod. The poet represents 
the whole mundane system as being affected by 
the Adamic transgression. 

" Earth felt the shock ! and nature from her seat, 
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe 
That all was lost." 



CTJLTURA. 179 

Tradition graphically describes the fall of 
man. The poet Hesiod speaks thus : 

" The woman's hands an ample casket bear ; 
She lifts the lid, and scatters ills in air ! 
Hope sole remained within, nor took her flight, 
Beneath the casket's verge concealed from sight. 
With ills the land is rife, with ills the sea; 
Diseases haunt our frail mortality." 

The question is sometimes asked, Why did 
not God so create man that he could not sin? 
To this we give the fallowing answer : (1) Crea- 
tion itself implies limitation. (2) Limitation im- 
plies imperfection. (3) It is not a question of 
power, but of the very nature of things. There 
can not be two hills without a valley between 
them ; there can not be fire without a possibility 
of its burning and injuring man ; nor can there 
be free will without a possibility of sinning. 
The only safe plan is for man to get so far from 
evil that he will have no desire to partake of it. 
God has made provision for this. Even before 
man left his Edenic home, sacrifice was instituted, 
as indicated by the clothing worn by Adam and 
Eve. The victims offered pointed to the Lamb 
of God who takes away the sin of the world. 
Sacrifice could have had no other than a divine 



180 CULTURA. 

origin, and this proves that God spoke to man 
in the early history of the race. 

Adam was a type of Him who was to come. 
An event, a thing, or a person may be a type. 
We have before us a personal type ; and as no 
man is perfect, there can not be found a perfect 
type of Christ. It is necessary to consider the 
contrast between the type and the antitype, as 
well as the resemblance. 

First, the contrast: 1. Adam was earthly; 
Christ was heavenly. 2. Adam defaced the di- 
vine image; Christ was the exact image of God. 
3. Adam was proud and rebellious; Christ was 
humble and obedient. 4. Adam brought sin 
and death upon the race ; Christ, salvation and 
life. 5. By Adam man lost paradise ; by Christ 
he regains it. Second, the resemblance: 1. 
They both proceeded from God, and were of 
supernatural origin. 2. They were both found 
in the likeness of God. 3. They both repre- 
sented the human race. 4. They were both in- 
vested with dominion. 5. The marriage of both 
was appointed by Jehovah. Christ is the hus- 
band of the Church (Eph. v. 25-33). As denoted 
by the Septuagint version, God from a rib of 



CULTURA. 181 

Adam builded a woman ; so the Church was 
builded upon the divine fact that Jesus was the 
Son of God, declared by his resurrection from 
the dead (Matt. xvi. 13-19; Eom. i. 4). As 
Adam was incomplete without his bride, so the 
work of Christ would be incomplete without the 
bride, the Lamb's wife. 

NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 

Heb. xi. 7 : JFaith is something more than a 
speculative exercise ; it is that spring of action, 
it is that dynamic force that moves the w^orld. 
It was the exercise of this vital principle that 
placed Noah in the catalogue of worthies. It 
was by faith that he prepared the ark. He 
had had a revelation from God in reference to 
his duty, and was loyal to the mandates of 
Jehovah. It was said of an old preacher, that 
he had succeeded in making but one con- 
vert. The old man replied that he would 
spend the rest of his days in the effort to 
make another. Noah preached one hundred 
and twenty years, and made no converts out- 
side of his own family. 



182 CULTURA.. 

It appears that the antediluvians had reached 
a desperate state of wickedness, the climax of 
which was reached by the marriage of the sons 
of God with the daughters of men. Peter and 
Jude draw a fearful picture of the depravity 
of that age, and make it a pattern of the de- 
pravity of the last days when God will again 
visit the world with destruction. 

There is such a thing as going beyond re- 
demption, and that is just what the antedi- 
luvians did. Man had corrupted himself before 
God, and the earth was filled with violence. 
The descendants of Cain inherited the nature 
of their father, and the tendency was to a con- 
stant increase of evil. The posterity of Seth 
so far compromised with the wicked race of 
Cain as to intermarry with them. One wicked 
woman can do more harm than a dozen wicked 
men ; and when the sons of Seth married the 
daughters of Cain, the depravity of the race 
very rapidly became total. God said to Noah : 
"The end of all flesh has come up before me." 
This is a beautiful oriental metaphor; for be- 
fore an order is executed, the decree is pre- 
sented to the sovereign for his signature. God 



CULTURA. 183 

had examined into the case, and saw that 
nothing but execution was possible uuder the 
circumstances. The race had become totally 
depraved, and there was no hope of its re- 
demption. 

God made a covenant with Noah, which was 
the first covenant ever made with man. The 
only solution of the problem was to destroy 
the inhabitants of the earth, and re-people it 
with the family of Noah. God never forsakes 
the righteous amid the greatest apostasies, but 
always makes provisions for their escape. He 
plucked righteous Lot, through the agency of 
merciful angels, from that destruction which 
came upon the degenerate cities of the plain. 
He now gives Noah directions by which he 
can build an ark, and thus save himself and 
family from that terrible deluge which de- 
stroyed the world at large. The wisdom in 
the material used, and in the way of building 
the great vessel, has been fully shown by archi- 
tects in modern times. In the flourishing age 
of the Dutch republic a Dutchman built a ship 
after the model of Noah's ark, which was 
superior to any other that then sailed over 



184 CUL.TURA. 

the waves of the great deep. The ark was near 
the size of the Great Eastern, the largest ship 
that has ever been built. The wicked de- 
scendants of Lamech evidently ridiculed Noah 
as a crank; but when it was too late they 
found that Noah was right, and they were 
wrong. 

Noah was a man of faith, and paid no atten- 
tion to public opinion. He knew he was right, 
and went ahead without any reference to con- 
sequences. On account of his fidelity to God's 
requirements he is enrolled among the heroes 
of the faith in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. 
He did according to all that God had com- 
manded him. At the proper time the flood 
came, and swept with the very besom of de- 
struction the wicked antediluvian world. The 
tallest tree upon the highest mountain could 
not save them from a watery grave. There 
has been a good deal of discussion in reference 
to the universality of the deluge ; but it is very 
certain that it was universal so far as the wicked 
race was concerned. 

Infidel writers have urged many objections 
to the Mosaic account of the Noachian delude. 



CULTURA. 185 

On this subject, as well as upon all others in 
controversy, science and literature are on the 
side of the Bible. Geology teaches that the 
ocean has at least once returned over the land 
since the completion of the continents. It is 
a significant fact that there are traditions point- 
ing back to the deluge among the different 
nations of the earth. The Orientals bear posi- 
tive testimony to such a catastroplie, which 
seems to have occurred in the valleys of the 
Tigris and Euphrates. The tribes, as they dis- 
persed from the mountains of Armenia, carried 
with them traditions of God's terrible visitation 
upon the wicked race. The science of language 
traces all the tongues of men back to three 
grand divisions, and they point back to an 
original unity in Central Asia. The science 
of ethnology also confirms the Bible narra- 
tive; for it finds, by a careful comparison of 
the races of men, that all sprang from three 
sources; that is, from the three sons of Noah. 
When the deluge had subsided, Noah at first 
sent out a raven, but it never returned. He 
then sent out a dove, which did return. What 
a beautiful emblem is the dove of the Holy 



186 CULTURA. 

Spirit! (Matt. iii. 16, 17). Woe to that per- 
son who drives from him the heavenly dove, 
never to return ! It would be better for that 
person if he had never beeu born. It was when 
the flood had subsided that the dove returned 
with the olive-leaf; it was at the baptism of 
Jesus that the Holy Spirit descended upon him 
in the shape of a dove. Noah's salvation by 
water is a type of our salvation by baptism. 
" The like figure whereunto baptism doth also 
now save us" (I. Peter iii. 21). Salvation by 
baptism is called the answer of a good con- 
science by the resurrection of Christ. The 
word answer is from the Greek eperotema, 
which denotes the object sought. The Greek 
ending, ma, denotes the result of the action 
expressed by the verb. The word poiemay a 
poem, denotes the object expressed by the verb 
poieo. Baptism saves us, then, in effecting a 
good conscience by the resurrection of Christ. 
MacKnight, in his commentary on the Epis- 
tles, beautifully presents the following points 
in reference to Noah's salvation and salvation 
by baptism: (1) As by building and entering 
the ark, Noah showed a strong faith in the 



CULTURA. 187 

promise of God concerning his preservation by 
the very water which was to destroy the ante- 
diluvians for their sinsj so by being buried 
in the waters of baptism we show faith in God's 
promise that he will raise us from the dead. 
(2) As the preserving of Noah alive during 
the nine months he was in the flood is an 
emblem of the preservation of the spirits of 
the righteous in the intermediate state; so 
the preserving of believers alive while buried 
in the waters of baptism is a prefiguration of 
the same event. (3) As the water of the deluge 
destroyed the wicked antediluvians, but pre- 
served Noah by bearing up the ark until the 
waters were assuaged, and he went out to live 
again on the earth ; so baptism may be said 
to destroy the wicked, and to save the right- 
eous, as it prefigures both these events: the 
death of the sinner it prefigures by burying the 
baptized person in the water, and the salvation 
of the righteous by raising the baptized person 
out of the water to live a new life (Col. iii. 1). 

The rainbow is the token of the covenant 
God gave Noah that the race would not be again 
destroyed by water. The rainbow is never seen 



188 CULTURA. 

except when the fears of men might be excited 
with regard to another flood. It represents sun- 
shine as well as rain. It is a striking symbol of 
God^s kind regard for man. 1. It presents no 
arrows to the heavens, but is a striking emblem 
of peace. It very beautifully unites the seven 
prismatic colors, namely : red, orange, yellow, 
green, blue, indigo, and violet. 2. The rainbow 
readies even unto the heavens. " And there 
was a rainbow round about the throne, in siglit 
like unto an emerald^' (Rev. iv. 3). 

Noah was a type of Christ. We consider — 
First: The Contrast. 1. After his deliverance 
from the waters of the deluge he fell into tempt- 
ation, and became inebriated with the fermented 
juice of the grape. Butler thus alludes to this 
event in Hudibras : 

" Which since has overwhelmed and drowned 
Far greater number on dry ground 
Of wretched mankind, one by one, 
Than e'er the flood before had done." 

Jesus, the antitype, was absolutely perfect. 2. 
The ark was for the temporal deliverance of a 
few persons; Christ\s salvation is eternal, and 
embraces all nations and tongues. 



CULTURA. 189 

Second: The Likeness. 1. The name Noah 

is very significant, for it means rest or comfort, 

and his Father gave it by inspiration (Gen. v. 

27). He and his family were the only ones that 

had true rest during those degenerate times that 

brought about the destruction of mankind. 

Noah was, doubtless, a powerful chieftain, of the 

family of Seth, and did all he could to check 

the deteriorating tendency of his day. In the 

beautiful language of Scripture, he " walked 

with God," and did not tread that downward 

path to a baptismal grave. He walked with 

God, like his ancestor Enoch, 

" Who climbed Love's ladder so high, 
From the round at the top he stepped to the sky." 

Christ, the antitype of Noah, came to give 

his people rest (Matt. xi. 28-30). 2. Noah was 

a preacher of righteousness, and so was Jesus. 

Noah, amid the wickedness of the ancient 

world, stood 

" Like some tall mount that lifts its awful form, 
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm ; 
Though round its base the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 

Jesus was anointed by the Spirit of God to 

preach the gospel of righteousnes to the poor, 



190 CULTURA. 

to bind up the broken-hearted, to deliver the 
captives, and prepare the people for the accept- 
able year of the Lord. 3. Noah prepared the 
ark ; Jesus built the ark of safety, the Church of 
Christ (Matt. xvi. 13-19). 4. Noah was the 
priest of the world ; Christ is the High Priest of 
our profession, or confession. We should re- 
joice in the eternal Priesthood of Jesus Christ, 
for he is able to save to the uttermost all that 
come to the Father by him (Heb. vii. 25). 

JONAH AND THE WHALE. 

Matt. xii. 41 : There is nothing certainly 
known of the prophet Jonah except what is 
written in the Bible. He was the son of 
Amittai, of Gath-hepher, in the tribe of Zebu- 
Ion, and was consequently of the northern 
kingdom, and not of the tribe of Judah. From 
II. Kings xiv. 25, it is evident that he began to 
prophesy not later than the reign of Jeroboam 
II., grandson of Jehu, which began 825 B. c. 
He was to Jeroboam II. what Ahijah was to 
Jeroboam I., and what Elisha was to Jehu. It 
is supposed that he prophesied from forty to 
fifty year^. He was one of the early prophets, 



CULTUKA. 191 

and his prophecies are among the earliest tbat 
have come down to us in a connected form. He 
was contemporary with Homer, the great poet, 
and with Lycurgus, the Spartan law-giver. 

It has been claimed that the book of Jonah 
should not belong to the divine canon, because 
Jonah did not prophesy in reference to either 
Judah or Israel. His prophecy is a rebuke to 
the kingdom of Israel. As the Israelites would 
not hear the word of God, the Lord sent his 
prophet to the great Gentile city, Nineveh, to 
warn it against the deteriorating tendency so 
fearfully visible in it at that time. The book of 
Jonah clearly teaches us that God did not intend 
to confine his revelation to the Hebrews alone; 
for he even sent it beyond the Tigris to the 
great city of Nineveh. It was a great mistake 
on the part of the Hebrews to suppose that they 
were the special favorites of Heaven, and that 
there was no hope for the residue of mankind. 
Jonah, like Peter at a later date, had never eaten 
anything common or unclean, and it required a 
miracle to fully convince him of his duty. The 
Hebrews had special antipathy towards the 
Assyrians ; Jonah was a patriot, and he did 



192 CULTURA. 

not want to preach to the enemies of his 
country. 

The book of Jonah was, doubtless, wi'itten by 
the prophet himself, for it places his faults before 
us in a glaring light, without any effort to excuse 
his conduct. It bears the marks of sincerity, 
and the writer was honest enough to place his 
faults before men so that they might profit by 
his mistakes. This is characteristic of all Bible 
writers, so different from the method of profane 
historians. They make a great effort to hide the 
faults of their heroes. 

Jonah was commanded to go and proclaim in 
the greatest city in the world its impending 
doom : " Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be 
overthrown.'' His route to Nineveh was indeed 
a perilous one. He was five hundred miles from 
the doomed city, and to reach it would require 
him to pass over rugged mountains, across burn- 
ing deserts, and through a pathless wilderness. 
To cross great rivers, contend with wild beasts 
and meet savages without any visible means of 
defense, was a thorough test of his faith iu God. 
He could not reach Nineveh without passing 
over the frozen regions of the snow-crowned 



CULTURA. 193 

Hermon, and wandering through the cedars of 
the renowned Lebanon. It was a duty requiring 
a man of very decisive faith and of an iron will 
to perform. Jonah at first could not bear the 
test ; it required severe discipline to prepare him 
for the great work. 

The Lord commanded Jonah to go and preach 
to the Ninevites. He went in the opposite 
direction to what the Lord had directed. Tar- 
shish was directly west, in the southern part of 
Spain, and the most distant western country 
known to the Hebrews. It had been settled by 
the Phoenicians, the greatest seamen of ancient 
times. Jonah fled from duty. While we are 
condemning his conduct, let us remember the 
large number of religious teachers who give way 
before fewer obstacles than those with which 
Jonah had to contend. Besides the perils of the 
journey, Nineveh was at that time the largest 
city in the world. It was one of the oldest, 
having been builded by Nimrod, the grandson 
of Noah. It was fully sixty miles in circum- 
ference, and contained a population of more than 
six hundred thousand. The western powers 
greatly feared this gigantic kingdom, and it was 



194 CULTURA. 

the desire of every patriotic Israelite to have 
the city overthrown. Jonah evidently feared 
that the Ninevites would repent, and the desire 
of his heart would not be accomplished. He 
went to Joppa, and paid his fare to Tarshish. 
It appears, however, that he told the crew when 
he got on the ship tbat he was fleeing from the 
presence of the Lord. The prophet wanted to 
be alone ; so he went down into the hold of the 
ship, and tried to sleep off his trouble. The 
Lord soon sent a storm that overtook the rebell- 
ious prophet. The mariners lost control of the 
ship, and saw that all would go down if some- 
thing was not done. They called upon their 
gods, and awoke Jonah to call upon his 
God ; but all in vain, for the tempest continued 
to increase. Finally they cast lots to find out 
the guilty one, and the lot fell upon Jonah. 
The prophet saw that he could not hide himself 
from the face of the Lord ; so he calmly sub- 
mitted to his fate, and asked to be thrown into 
the sea, which he knew Avas the only thing that 
would ever stop the storm. Among the mon- 
sters of the deep, the Lord prepared one to 
swallow up Jonah. The preservation of Jonah's 



CULTURA. 196 

life in the stomach of the great fish was indeed 
a wonderful miracle, but no more wonderful 
than many others that have occurred. 

The skeptic claims that the whale could not 
have swallowed Jonah. The Bible simply 
teaches that God prepared a great fish, and 
that there are such that could swallow a man, 
is beyond doubt. The white shark could easily 
do so; and Captain King, in his "Survey of 
Australia,^' says that he caught one which could 
easily swallow a man. Blumenbach claims that 
a whole horse has been found in the stomach 
of such a fish. Ruysch says that the shark 
has been known to swallow a man in armor. 
Naturalists state that sharks have the power 
of throwing up alive their prey. Mr. Darwin 
says : '' I have heard from Dr. Allen, of Forbes, 
that he has frequently seen a diodon (or globe- 
fish, so called from its power of distending 
its stomach into a great globe) floating alive 
and distended in the stomach of a shark; 
and that on several occasions he has known 
it to cut its way out, not only through the 
coats of the stomach, but through the sides of 
the monster, which has been thus killed.'' 



196 CULTUEA. 

The word of the Lord again came to Jonah, 
saying : *' Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great 
city, and preach unto it the preaching that I 
bid thee/* He immediately went, and entered 
the great city, which was surrounded with lofty 
walls, upon which were placed fifteen hundred 
towers. Early in the morning he commenced 
a day^s journey within the circuit of the walls. 
As he passed parks, pleasure-gardens, palaces, 
temples, magnificent works of art, he pro- 
claimed his pointed sermon: "Yet forty; days, 
and Nineveh overthrown." His preaching soon 
attracted the attention of the whole city, and 
brought even the king to the earth, clothed in 
sackcloth and ashes. The Ninevites repented 
at the preaching of Jonah, and the city was 
saved. 

God saw that the Ninevites had completely 
humiliated themselves, and had sorely repented 
of their wickedness; so he forgave them, and 
Nineveh was not destroyed. God's judgments 
are always based upon conditions, and even 
his foreknowledge is made conditional. God 
foresaw that Nineveh would be overthrown; 
and had not Nineveh changed her course, sugh 



CUL.TURA. 197 

would have been the case. When Nineveh re- 
pented she complied with the only condition of 
her salvation. The sign of the prophet Jonah, 
and the reformation of the Mnevites, should 
have been a lesson to the Jews in the days of 
Christ. Forty days were given to the Ninevites 
in which to repent ; and they properly employed 
the time. After the death of Christ forty years 
were given to the Jews, and they repented not. 
So their capital city and country were swept 
with the very besom of destruction. 

We now have another evidence of the fickle- 
ness of human nature, even when honored by 
the spirit of inspiration. The extraordinary 
success of one day's preaching was too much 
for the intractable spirit of Jonah. He had 
forgotten his humiliation after the terrors of 
the sea, and his old pride of heart returned. 
He was angry because Nineveh was not de- 
stroyed — failing to recognize the fact that his 
preaching was to induce the people to repent. 
The success of his preaching is shown in the 
fact that the Ninevites did repent; yet he 
wanted the city destroyed which contained one 
hundred and twenty thousand helpless children. 



198 CULTURA. 

He may have wanted their destruction to be a 
warning to Israel ; yet their repentance ought 
to have been a greater lesson. There is too 
much of the spirit of Jonah even among Chris- 
tians. Their combativeness and destructiveness 
are too largely developed. They need softening 
down by the restraining influence of tlie spirit 
of Christ. 

Jonah was a type of Clirist. 1. His name 
signifies dove, which represents the meek and 
gentle spirit of Jesus. Jonah was not a perfect 
type, for his dove-like nature sometimes left 
him. When Jesus was baptized of John in 
Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended upon him 
in the shape of a dove (Matt. iii. 36). 2. Jonah 
was a type of Christ in the fact that he pro- 
claimed God's will to men. He preached re- 
pentance ; Christ taught the people to repent 
and prepare for the coming kingdom. 3. Jonah 
represented our Saviour in his sufferings and 
deliverance. (1) Jonah was willing to be cast 
into the sea; Christ died voluntarily for the 
sin of the world. (2) In Jonah's sufferings we 
have represented the terrible agony of Christ 
in Gethsemane and upon the cross at Calvary. 



CULTURA. 199 

(3) Jonah^s preservation was a type of the 
resurrection of Christ from among the dead. 

MELCHIZEDEK A TYPE OF CHRIST. 

It has long been an interesting question to 
biblical scholars as to who was Melchizedek. 
Various answers have been given, but none 
at all satisfactory. It was, doubtless, the de- 
sign of God to forever conceal his ancestry 
and posterity, that he might be a more fitting 
type of Christ. _ Moses, in the fourteenth chap- 
ter of Genesis, simply represents him as king 
of Salem and priest of the most high God. 
Joseph us agrees with Moses, and says that '^ he 
supplied Abraham's army in a hospitable man- 
ner, and gave them provisions in abundance" 
(Ant. i. 10, 2). Philo also refers to him as a 
real person, and says, ^^ God made him king of 
Salem," and he calls him " the priest of the 
most high God." The name Melchizedek itself 
simply means " king of righteousness." Au- 
thorities are generally agreed that Salem was 
Jerusalem. Josephus takes this view of it; and 
the situation of Jerusalem corresnonds well 
with the facts recorded in Gen. xiv. 17-20. 



200 CULTURA. 

Jerusalem was to be prominent in bringing 
about the reign of the Prince of Peace, and 
was itself a type of the capital city of the king- 
dom of Christ. The priesthood of Melchizedek 
long antedated the priesthood of Aaron, and it 
showed that God had a people outside of the 
family of Abraham. Melchizedek was a strik- 
ing type of Christ in the following particulars : 

(1) In his personal history Melchizedek well 
represents our Saviour. His descent is unre- 
vealed. He certainly had father and mother, 
but we do not know anything about them. If 
he had posterity, we are entirely ignorant of it. 
In these things he is a type of a greater One. 

(2) The king of Salem well represented our 
Saviour in his official position. The word 
Salem itself means peace, and Jesus is called 
the Prince of Peace. He came to bring peace 
to this world, and introduced good will among 
men. Melchizedek was king as well as priest, 
and Jesus was to be of the same order (Heb. 
vii. 1-22 ; Psa. ex. 4). Tlie prophet Zechariah 
calls Jesus a priest upon his throne (Zech. vi. 
13). (3) Melchizedek represents Jesus in the 
blessing he bestowed. He blessed Abraham, 



CULTURA. 201 

the father of the faithful, and brought forth 
bread and wine. Jesus blesses all the spiritual 
seed of Abraham, and his body and blood are 
represented to all true believers by the bread 
and wine of the Lord^s supper. (4) Melchize- 
dek was a beautiful symbol of Christ in the 
homage and tribute he received. He was 
greatly honored by the patriarch Abraham, 
and received tithes of all. Jesus is much more 
honored by all who believe in him and obey 
his commandments. 

We do not have space to call attention to the 
many other striking types of Christ contained in 
the Old Testament. Moses, Aaron, Joshua, 
David, Solomon, and many others, were strik- 
ing types of Christ. In the Jewish Tabernacle 
we have a typical representation of the whole 
scheme of redemption. The entire journey of the 
Israelites from Egypt to Canaan has in it pro- 
found significance. Paul, in I. Cor. x. 1-4, says : 
" For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, 
how that our fathers were all under the cloud, 
and all passed through the sea; and were all 
baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea ; 
and did all eat the same spiritual meat ; and did 



202 CULTURA. 

all drink of the same spiritual drink ; for they 
drank of a spiritual rock that followed them : 
and the rock was Christ." No difference how 
skeptical a man may be, if he will thoroughly 
acquaint himself with the typology of the Bible 
he will be fully convinced that the scheme of 
redemption is of divine origin. God has cer- 
tainly given to man the wonderful plan of sal- 
vation. 



©HAPTBI^ III. 
The Prophetic Element of the Bible. 

There can be no question that the prophets of 
the Bible claimed inspiration from God which 
enabled them to predict the future. It is very 
plain that the writers of the New Testatment 
believed in the inspiration of the Hebrew proph- 
ets, and that they had clearly predicted the 
future. The prophetic evidence of the truth of 
the Bible is very convincing, for we can read 
upon the pages of history the fulfillment of 
these plain predictions. 

In God's natural gifts to man we have hints 
of prophetic power beyond. There are two ways 
by which man tries to penetrate the mysteries of 
the future : (1) By mathematical calculation. 
The stability of the laws of nature are such that 
the calculations of the astronomer are very cor- 
rect in case God does not interfere by his own 
direct power. We can not help admiring the 
wonderful endowments which God has bestowed 
upon man, and the greatness of the Author of 

203 



204 CULTURA. 

nature who has made the whole system so accu- 
rate in its movements. (2) Humau sagacity. It 
is astonishing what power some men have to 
look into the future. It is one of the principal 
causes of the success of business men, and it 
shows the greatness of true statesmanship. We 
admire these things, but they are far from the 
prophetic gift, which is certainly a direct gift 
from God. No candid student of Bible prophe- 
cies can otherwise than believe that holy men of 
old spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. 
When we study carefully the races of man- 
kind, we can not fail to be impressed with the 
fact that the father of the post-diluvian world 
spake by inspiration concerning the destiny of 
his sons (Gen. ix. 25-27). Thomas Paine once 
declared that, if God had prophets, we should 
expect them to speak in language that could 
be understood. The student of ethnology 
has no difficulty in understanding the language 
of Noah. The descendants of Ham have been 
the slaves of the world ; the descc ndants of Shem 
have given the world its religion ; and the de- 
scendants of Japheth have been the political 
rulers of the world. The Hamites were not 



CULTURA. 205 

slaves for centuries after the prediction of I^oah. 
At one time they disputed even with Rome the 
empire of the world. The prophecy, however, 
has been literally fulfilled. Alexander took 
Tyre, Rome conquered Carthage, and the Ham- 
ites became the servants of Japheth, as they had 
been of Shem when the land of Canaan was 
conquered. Since then Africa has ever been 
noted as the land of slaves, and these slaves have 
been transported to different parts of the world. 
We rejoice to know, however, that there are in- 
dications that the slave trade will come to an 
end, and Africa receive the light of modern 
civilization. The predictions concerning Shem 
and Japheth have been as fully fulfilled. The 
descendants of Japheth are now disseminating 
that religion which came through the posterity 
of Shem. The political triumphs of the Indo- 
European races in all parts of the world show 
that the descendants of Japheth are literally 
dwelling in the tents of Shem. 

A thousand years after the prophecy concern- 
ing the sons of Noah, an angel prophet announced 
to Hagar the destiny of her offspring (Gen. xvi. 
10-12). The descendants of Ishmael are to this 



206 CULTURA, 

day in harmony with the prophecy — wild and 
mighty. They possess that character wherever 
you find them. They have ever dwelt in the 
presence of their brethren, and have escaped all 
foreign yokes. Neither the armies of Egypt, 
Fersia, nor Rome were able to subdue them. To 
this day even the Sultan of Turkey, their nom- 
inal ruler, is compelled to pay them a yearly 
tax to obtain the privilege of transporting his 
caravans over their plains to Mecca. They yet 
possess territory equal in extent to that of Rome 
in her palmy days. We can not account for 
these facts without admitting that the angel 
prophet actually spoke to Hagar, in harmony 
with the teaching of the Bible. 

EGYPT IN PROPHECY. 

(Isa. xi. 15 ; xix. 3-7 ; Ezra. xxix. 13-16 ; xxx. 10-26.) 

Egypt was the oldest and most civilized of 
ancient nations. Her monuments are an evi- 
dence of her skill, and the wonder and as- 
tonishment of the whole world. She was the 
gift of the Nile, and when other countries had 
no corn there was plenty in Egypt. The 
Egyptians were noted for their discoveries in 



CULTTJRA. 207 

the arts and sciences, and Egypt for a long 
time was the university of the world. It was 
there that Moses, Pythagoras, Herodotus and 
Plato were educated. The Egyptians under- 
stood the form of the earth and length of the 
year; they had considerable knowledge of 
geometry and other branches of mathematics; 
they were quite well acquainted with chemistry, 
anatomy, and other branches of science. Glass 
has long been considered a modern invention, 
but it is now supposed that the Egyptians well 
understood it. There is nothing in modern 
times that will compare with the majestic pyra- 
mids of Egypt. It is not surprising that Napo- 
leon greatly animated his troops when he said : 
" Soldiers, forty centuries are now looking down 
upon you.'' The great pyramid was several 
centuries old when Abraham visited Egypt. 
While Egypt was in the very height of her 
prosperity, the Hebrew prophets made known 
her destiny; and any one who will take time 
to read the historic fulfillment will be able to 
verify the correctness of the prophecies. 

The prophet declared that the waters would 
fail from the sea. A great Egyptologist says: 



208 CULTURA. 

"An important geological change has, in the 
course of centuries, raised the country near the 
head of the Gulf of Suez. Since the Christian 
era even the head of the gulf has retired con- 
siderably southward.^' A few days ago I read 
in a reliable journal that Sir Samuel Baker, 
the famous African explorer, claimed that a 
great drouth in Egypt was caused by the fact 
that El Mahdi, who since the fall of Khartoum 
had been master of the Soudan, had turned out 
of its course the Atbara river. This is the 
most important tributary to the Nile, and nec- 
essarily affects the rise of the great river. It 
is also claimed that Stanley said that the king 
of Uganda could at any time turn the Nile 
out of its course. Indeed is prophecy being 
fulfilled in our eyes. 

Ezekiel predicted that there would no more 
be a prince from the land of Egypt. The spirit 
of Egypt was completely destroyed by the vic- 
torious powers which overran her. She has 
been conquered by the Persians, Macedonians, 
Romans, Saracens and Mamelukes. There is 
nothing in the history of nations like the form 
of government maintained in Egypt since the 



CULTURA. 209 

country was conquered in the thirteenth cen- 
tury by the Mamelukes. The successive rulers 
have risen from the position of vassals to tliat 
of supreme power ; so no native prince has oc- 
cupied the Egyptian throne. It was more than 
political sagacity which enabled the prophet to 
predict thijs; and it was more than scientific 
knowledge which enabled him to make known 
the geological changes which would take place 
in that sin-cursed country. 

Religion was the ruling principle of the 
Egyptians, although they had greatly apostatized 
from the primitive faith of the world. When 
they accepted true religion they became its 
greatest advocates, and Egypt once more became 
the literary center of the world. Ptolemy Phil- 
adelphus founded the famous library of antiqui- 
ty, and the Old Testament was translated into 
the Greek language. So we are indebted to 
Egypt for the famous Septuagint version of the 
Old Testament. God does not forget the good 
done in his name, and the prophet clearly teaches 
that there is a better time coming for Egypt. In 
harmony with the statement of the prophet, the 
Suez Canal has become a highway between 



210 CULTURA. 

Egypt and Assyria. In the movements of 
Great Britain and other western powers, it is 
very evident that there will be a revival of a 
Christian civilization in the East, and then 
Egypt, Palestine, and Assyria will become a 
blessing to the nations. 

THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON. 

Babylon was probably older than Nineveh, 
and has been identified with the Babel of Gen- 
esis. Joseph us represents Nimrod as being the 
prime mover in the impious enterprise. Baby- 
lon was an important city even during Ninevite 
supremacy, and was the center of science, liter- 
ature and religion. The Babylonians looked 
upon their conquerors very much as the Greeks 
looked upon the Romans, and the Jews upon 
the Gentiles. While a coalition was being 
formed against Nineveh, Nabopolassar, the 
greatest of Assyrian generals, was sent to Baby- 
Ion to quell the insurrection. He placed himself 
at the head of the coalition, captured Nineveh, 
transferred the capital to Babylon, and thus 
founded the Babylonian Empire, 610 b. c. His 
son and successor, Nebuchadnezzar, -was the 



CULTUEA. 211 

greatest of rulers, and one of the most magnifi- 
cent builders that the world has ever known. 
His power was absolute, and he could say more 
truly than could Louis XIV., " I am the State." 
Daniel could say to him, " Thou art the head of 
gold. " He actually made Babylon what Napo- 
leon afterwards tried to make Paris — the great 
metropolis of the world. 

According to Herodotus, the father of history, 
Babylon was the most magnificent city of ancient 
times. Its location had much to do in giving it 
such prominence. It was situated on the great 
river Euphrates, and occupied the central position 
for trade in the then civilized world. Before the 
invention of the railroad system it was not pos- 
sible for a great city to flourish anywhere except 
on or near a great water-course. The walls of 
Babylon were three hundred feet in height, and 
the width of the walls was such that four char- 
iots abreast could pass one another on the top. 
Upon these gigantic walls stood two hundred 
and fifty towers. This great city was entered 
by one hundred gates made of brass and iron, 
and on each side of the Euphrates, which ran 
through the city, were inner walls with massive 



212 CULTURA. 

iron gates at each of the broad streets which 
ran down to the river. A number of ferry- 
boats were always ready to accommodate tlie 
people in crossing the river. Indeed, startling 
to us was the civilization of ancient Babylon. 
The royal buildings within the city were im- 
mense. Oriental travelers describe a mound 
from which one of them towered as covering 
thirty-seven acres of ground. The hanging 
gardens of Babylon have long been classed 
among the wonders of the world. Square in 
form, they were formed in terraces, one above 
another, until they reached the height of the 
city walls. The top was covered with sheets 
of lead placed upon flat stones that had been 
cemented together with bitumen, the natural 
pitch of that country. Machinery was used to 
raise water from the Euphrates to the lop of 
the wonderful gardens. All this marvelous 
work is said to have been accomplished to 
please the fancy of the queen, who was fond 
of the hill country. Much has been lost of 
Babylonian greatness ; but what the monuments 
have preserved causes us to contemplate in 
am/izoment the ruins of the ancient world. 



CULTURA. 213 

When Babylon was at the height of her glory 
the Hebrew prophets predicted her utter ruin. 
Isaiah declared that it should be overthrown as 
when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah; 
that it should never be inhabited ; the Arabian 
would not pitch his tent there, nor the shepherd 
make his fold; that owls and doleful creatures 
would there dwell, and satyrs dance there (Isa. 
xiii. 19-22). Oriental travelers are witnesses 
to the fulfillment of this prophecy. The Arabs 
believe the ruins to be the abode of evil spirits, 
and under no circumstances can be induced to 
pitch their tents there. The prophet even calls 
Cyrus by name, and minutely describes his won- 
derful career (Isa. xlv. 1-4.) Josephus informs 
us that after Cyrus had taken Babylon the 
prophecy was shown to him, and that he was 
struck with admiration at the manifest divinity 
of the writing. It may have had much to do 
in influencing Cyrus to restore the Jews to the 
fatherland. Jerpraiah declared that the broad 
walls of Babylon should be utterly broken (Jer. 
li. 56-58). This prediction had not been en- 
tirely fulfilled until modern times. 



214 CULTURA. 

While Babylon has become proverbial on ac- 
count of the wickedness of her inhabitants, the 
city itself seems to have served as a model for 
John in describing the New Jerusalem. It was 
a city '^ lying four square/' the ^' walls great and 
high," and a river flowing through the city and 
in the midst of the street of it, and on either 
side of the river the tree of life bearing twelve 
manner of fruits. 

Belshazzar was associated with his father in 
the government of Babylon, and consequently 
bore the title of king. It was on the last night 
of his reign that he made a great feast, to revel 
amid the praises of his wives and concubines. 
There never lived a prouder or more profligate 
king than was the last of the Chaldeans. His 
time was spent in sensuality and self-indulgence. 
He wore dyed garments of brilliant colors, and 
curled his hair. I once met a preacher wlio 
curled his hair, and I said to myself, " This is a 
Belshazzar ;" and I was right. Belsliazzar in- 
herited enough to ruin anv young man who is 
not fortified by a strong character and a great 
mastery over his own passions. When qnite 
young, he was admitted to a share of regal pow- 



CULTURA. 215 

er, which was too much for even the great Neb- 
uchadnezzar; and it is not difficult to predict its 
effect upon this effeminate young prince. He 
had everything calculated to indulge passion and 
flatter pride. Princes were his servants, and the 
daughters of kings his concubines. The spoils 
of conquered nations enriched his capital, and 
his provinces were cultivated by conquered 
people. According to history, he was hasty in 
temper, luxurious in habit, indulgent towards 
his favorites, and extremely cruel towards those 
who happened to offend him. It is said that 
when opposed in his will his effeminate face 
would color with the ferocity of a demon. 

Just before Belshazzar's great feast, the prov- 
ince of Babylon had been overrun by a great 
northern army, and the army commanded by the 
father of Belshazzar seems to have been sepa- 
rated from Babylon. It appeared to the watch- 
men on the towers that the enemy had with- 
drawn from Babylon. Belshazzar, doubtless, 
thought the war over and the kingdom safe ; so 
he made a feast for his thousand lords. The re- 
tiring army was ridiculed, and even the guards 
deserted their posts. All the gates of the palace 



216 CULTORA. 

walls were left open ; so an army could come 
under the walls by draining the river. The 
Babylonians were so reckless that they paid no 
attention to the mysterious falling of the waters. 
In the great feast Belshazzar reached the sum- 
mit of impiety by ordering for drinking cups 
the vessels of the Lord's sanctuary. It was a 
daring act, of which even the great !Nebuchad- 
nezzar would not be guilty. Belshazzar was full 
of intoxicating wine, and was prepared for any 
impious act. A great historian has said : " The 
Babylonians were much given to wine and to 
those things which follow intoxication.'' Jere- 
miah predicted the drunken character of the 
Babylonian rulers. Belshazzar was greatly 
frightened at the mysterious hand even before 
Daniel made known to him his terrible doom. 
Like most men engaged in midnight revelry, he 
was greatly frightened at approaching danger. 
The joints of his loins were loosed, and his 
knees smote each other. If he had had any 
boots, he evidently would have been frightened 
out of them. " In that night was Belshazzar, 
king of the Chaldeans, slain." The kingdom 
was divided between the Medes and Persians. 



CULTURA. 217 

On that dreadful night 
The Persian in his might 
Entered the city that was doomed 
Belshazzar ignored the right, 
On that terrible night, 
When so near the tomb. 

While there was feasting in the halls, 

An army passed under the walls 

To end forever Babylonian rei^n ; 

For on that night— that awful night — 

Was Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, slain. 



THE JEWS AND JERUSALEM. 

The commonwealth of Israel lasted a little 
more than fifteen hundred years. It ended 
when Samaria was taken by the Assyrians. 
The kingdom of Judah lasted much longer, 
and it became the representative of God's chosen 
people. More than three thousand years ago, 
while their fathers were wandering in the wil- 
derness, Moses, their great leader and prophet, 
foretold their destiny. Those who will take 
time to study their history will find that Moses 
made no mistakes in his predictions. The 
prophetic history of the Israelites is sufficient 
to establish the divine authority of the Bible. 
I hope that all my readers will carefully ex- 



218 CULTURA. 

amine the following references; Deut. xxviii. 
36-65 ; Lev. xxvi. 33-44. Moses gives us the 
following facts: (1) That the Jews would be 
scattered among the nations ; (2) that they would 
flee from the sword, and have no power to 
stand before their enemies ; (3) that they would 
be brought into a nation, which neither they 
nor their fathers knew; (4) that they would 
not be utterly destroyed; (5) that they would 
become an astonishment, proverb and byword 
among all nations. 

These predictions have been literally fulfilled 
in the invasion of Judea by the Chaldeans and 
Romans. It was predicted that in their sieges 
they would suffer much by famine. Such was 
the case when Jerusalem was besieged by the 
Chaldeans, and also during the Roman siege 
the people were driven to the greatest extremity 
by famine. It was predicted by both Moses 
and Jeremiah that the mother would make food 
of her own offspring (Deut. xxviii. 53 ; Jer. 
xxvi. 29). This prediction was fulfilled nine 
hundred years after the death of Moses, in the 
siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. Again 
it was fulfilled fifteen hundred years after the 



CULTURA. 219 

time of Moses, when Jerusalem was besieged 
by the Romans. 

Jesus was a prophet like unto Mosos (Acts 
iii. 22) ; and let us now examine some of his 
predictions concerning the Jews and Jerusalem. 
On Mt. Olivet he told his disciples what would 
be the fate of the temple of Jerusalem and of 
the whole Jewish nation (Matt, xxiv.; Luke 
xxi.). It was about forty years before the de- 
struction of Jerusalem that these predictions 
were uttered. -It was recorded by Matthew 
and Luke at least twenty years before the siege 
of Jerusalem by the Romans. It is the testi- 
mony of antiquity that both of these evangelists 
were dead before Titus kd the Roman army 
into Palestine. 

We will consider the predictions under the 
following heads: (1) The signs, the investment 
of Jerusalem by the Romans; (2) the circum- 
stances connected with the siege and destruction 
of the temple and city ; (3) the consequences 
of this terrible catastrophe. 

During the life of Jesus no false Christs 
arose; there was no war, and no prospect of 
any ; the temple and Jerusalem stood in all 



220 CULTURA. 

their grandeur. Jesus foretold that there would 
arise false Christs, that there would be earth- 
quakes and famine, extraordinary appearances 
in the heavens, wars and rumors of wars, and 
such tribulation as had not been from the be- 
ginning of the world. 

We read upon the pages of Josephus and 
Tacitus a fulfillment of these predictions to the 
very letter. Josephus particularly describes the 
false Christs and false prophets, speaks of wars 
and rumors of wars, and declares that the dis- 
orders of Syria were terrible. He also speaks 
of earthquakes, famines and pestilences, and of 
fearful signs from heaven. He tells of a star, 
resembling a sword, which stood over the city ; 
and of chariots, and troops of soldiers, running 
among the clouds, and surrounding cities. He 
says that as the priests were going into the inner 
court of the temple at the feast of Pentecost, 
they felt a quaking, and heard the sound as'of 
a multitude, saying, ^^ Let us depart hence.^' 
Tacitus also says that there was a loud voice 
declaring that the gods were removing. It is 
said that the people were greatly affected by a 
man who appeared in Jerusalem four years be- 



CULTURA. 221 

f jre the siege, and ran up and down the streets, 
crying day and night, " A voice from the east, 
a voice from the west, a voice from the four 
winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the temple. 
Woe ! woe to Jerusalem !" No persecution 
could stop him, and he continued until killed 
during the siege. The student might also read 
Suetonius and Seneca for an account of the ful- 
fillment of some of these awful predictions. 

The circumstances connected with the fulfill- 
ment of God^s judgment against this wicked 
nation are as follows : (1) The event would take 
place before the existing generation had passed 
away ; (2) a heathen nation, bearing idolatrous 
ensigns, would wage war against the Jews ; 
(3) Jerusalem and the temple would be utterly 
destroyed, and not one rock would be left upon 
another of this sacred edifice ; (4) that multi- 
tudes would fall by the edge of the sword, and 
a great number would be carried into captivity ; 
(5) that the distress would exceed anything 
which had ever occurred in the world. 

The Romans surrounded Jerusalem, when two 
or three millions of the Jews had assembled at 
the Passover. Some of the leading men thought 



222 CULTURA. 

of opening the gates, when all at once, without 
any apparent reason, the army appeared to with- 
draw. At this time the disciples of Christ left 
the city, and went beyond the Jordan. Titus 
soon returned, and dug a trench around the city. 
Then there was a fearful time within the walls. 
Faction, famine and pestilence rapidly did their 
deadly work. Those who endeavored to escape 
wore crucified by the Romans until crosses were 
wanting for this cruel work. Food became so 
scarce that the people were guilty of cannibal- 
ism, and women were known to eat their own 
offspring. It is said that when Titus beheld the 
dead bodies that had been thrown over the 
walls, he called God to witness that it was not 
his doing. Josephus computes that upwards 
of one million three hundred thousand persons 
perished in the siege of Jerusalem alone. Con- 
trary to the wish of Titus, the temple was 
utterly destroyed, so that not one stone was left 
upon another. 

The consequences of this terrible catastrophe 
were also the subject of prophecy, and are being 
as literally fulfilled as were the other events. 
The Jews who survived were sold as slaves. 



CULTURA. 223 

aiid scattered among the nations. Jerusalem 
was trodden down of the Gentiles, and continues 
in this condition to the present time. They 
have been a hiss and a byword, and have been 
the subjects of persecution in nearly all parts of 
the world. The Emperor Julian, who had 
apostatized, tried to rebuild the temple, and thus 
defeat the prophecy, but failed. The Jews have 
found no permanent home in any country, but 
have been expelled fr©m kingdom after king- 
dom. Spain tolerated them for a long time, 
and they called it an earthly paradise. In the 
days of Ferdinand and Isabella eight hundred 
thousand Jews were expelled from Spain. The 
account of their sufferings after this makes the 
blood run cold. They vnll continue in this 
scattered condition until they accept the Saviour 
of the world, whom they have so long rejected. 

CHRIST AND HIS KINGDOM. 

There is a tendency on the part of mankind 
to dwell upon the glories of antiquity. The 
ancient nations were delighted in contemplating 
the golden age of the past, and were not very 
hopeful in reference to the future. The Jews 



^24 CULTURA. 

were an exception to this, and established their 
commonwealth upon a vivid view of the reign 
of Messiah. Their thoughts on this subject had 
become so widespread that the civilized nations 
of the world were looking for a great deliverer 
about the time that Jesus came. About the time 
that Pompey held Jerusalem, Suetonius declared 
that nature would bring forth a king. The 
senate decreed that every child born during the 
year of the conquest should be put to death. 
The decree, however, could not be executed, and 
every mother in Rome thought that she saw in 
her own child the promised one. 

1. The prophets made known the time and 
place of our Saviour's birth. Jacob, in bestowing 
his last blessing upon his sons, declared that the 
scepter would not depart from Judah until Shi- 
loh come (Gen. xlix. 10). Daniel also pre- 
dicted the time, and at the birth of Christ the 
scepter only lingered in the Herodian family. 
The place of the Saviour's birth was also desig- 
nated, and he was to be of the house of David 
(Micah V. 2; Isaiah xi. 10; Jer. xxiii. 5, 6; Rom. 
i. 3). Matthew definitely states that he was born 
in Bethlehem in Judea (Matt. ii. 1), and it was 



CULTURA. 225 

because of their relationship to David that 
Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem at the 
time. The mission of John the Baptist, so 
graphically described by Matthew, was foretold 
by the prophets Malachi and Isaiah (Mai. iii. 
1 ; iv. 5 ; Isaiah xl. 3). 

2. The character and mission of Jesus were 
clearly foretold by the prophets. He was to 
work miracles, and be rejected by his own 
countrymen (Isa. xxxv. 5, 6; viii. 14; liii. 2, 
3; Jer. i. 11). The prophetic representation of 
the Messiah as king and conqueror, also as a man 
of sorrow and grief, caused the Jews at one time 
to look for two Messiahs ; the one a great con- 
queror, and the other a patient sufferer. Both of 
these characters are perfectly fulfilled in Christ, 
but not in any other person who has ever lived. 

3. The sufferings and death of Jesus were 
also subjects of prophecy (Isa. liii. 8; Zech. 
xii. 10; Jer. xix. 34). It was even stated by 
the prop] let that he would make his grave with 
the rich (Isa. liii. 9; Matt, xxvii. 57-60). His 
resurrection was foretold in the statement that 
his body would not see corruption (Psa. xvi. 10 ; 
Acts ii. 29-31). 



226 CULTURA. 

These prophecies in reference to the Messiah 
are matters of fact, and can not be disputed by 
any candid investigator. They certainly prove 
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the Son 
of God. Lord Byron says ; '' If ever man was 
God, or God man, Jesus Christ was both." The 
following is from the skeptical Rousseau : " Can 
it be possible that the personage whose history 
the gospel contains should be a mere man ? 
What sublimity in his maxims ! What profound 
wisdom in his discourses ! If the life and death 
of Socrates are that of a sage, the life and 
death of Jesus are those of a God.'' Goethe, 
the great genius of German litcraiure, speaks 
thus of Jesus : " He is the divine man — the holy 
one. '' 

We now call attention to the Kingdom of 
Christ, and will find it also in perfect harmony 
with the predictions of the prophets. That 
being true, the Jews were entirely inexcusable 
for misunderstanding its character. 

There is no nation of originality which has 
not its favorite political principles. At the 
origin of the American Republic, liberty and 
equality were the watchwords of the American 



CTJLTUEA. 227 

people. No man could be a statesman who did 
not understand the spirit of the people. Such 
a daring and independent man as was Patrick 
Henry was the type of statesman which was at 
that time needed. In England he would not 
have suited, for the principles of the English 
people were entirely different. They needed 
a more conservative man. 

The principles of the Jewish people were 
peculiar, when compared with those of other 
nations. They \vere ruled by an invisible 
King. Jehovah was their King. When the 
people fiually insisted on an earthly king, and suc- 
ceeded in getting one, it was contrary to the moral 
sentiments of the best men of the nation. The 
king was not regarded, however, as independent. 
He was simply considered the representative of 
Jehovah. The nearer this king would live to 
Jehovah, the more loyal would the people be to 
him. As the Hebrew people had peculiar polit- 
ical principles, so they had a peculiar type of 
statesmen. The prophets were their political 
orators. The one who lived nearest to the invis- 
ible King was the most powerful agitator. He 
could rebuke and even dethrone kings. At the 



2'28 CULTURA. 

coming of Christ, the distinctive features of the 
Jewish people were losing their force, and the 
sect of the Pharisees had been organized to 
check inroads of foreign principles upon the 
Hebrew nation. They expected their Messiah 
to fully restore the principles of the theocracy, 
and enforce the Mosaic law. They really made 
the Christ inferior to Moses, for the one who 
simply practices under a law is inferior to the 
lawgiver. While Jesus fulfilled the Jewish law, 
he established a better one, and was consequently 
a greater lawgiver than Moses. The Jews in 
divers ways tried to test the claims of Jesus to 
the Messiahship. In the times of David and 
Solomon the Jews had imposed a tribute upon 
the surrounding nations, and they believed that 
their Messiah would do the same. When they 
questioned Jesus concerning the tribute money, 
they thought, if he was the Christ, he would be 
fired with indignation at such a national disgrace 
as paying tribute to a foreigner. To their aston- 
ishment, he appeared but little interested in the 
question, and told them to pay back into Caesar's 
treasury the coins that had come from Caesar's 
mint. The ancient kings of Judah had had 



CULTUEA. 229 

judges. Jesus was invited to be a judge, once 
in a civil action concerning an inheritance, and 
again in a criminal case of adultery. In both 
cases he declined the office, and in one case he 
expressly declared that he had no commission to 
exercise judicial functions. The ancient kings 
had commanded the armies of the nations, but 
Jesus would not take up arms even to prevent 
his own arrest. 

Previous to the execution of Jesus, he under- 
went two trials^ — the one before the Jewish San- 
hedrin, and the other bef )re the Roman court. 
The confidence of his disciples was very much 
shaken in him by the fact that he made no 
resistance. At his arrest, Peter, the leader 
among the disciples, drew his sword and struck 
the first blow, but Jesus repaired the injury, and 
gently rebuked Peter by stating a fundamental 
truth : " They that take the sword will perish 
by the sword.^' The history of civil govern- 
ment fully verifies the correctness of this state- 
ment. What has become of the four universal 
kingdoms antedating the Christian kingdom? 
Without a single exception, they have perished 
by the sword. 



230 CULTUKA. 

"When Jesus was brought before Pilate's bar 
the Jews accused him in these words : " This 
man says he is a king." The charge before the 
Sanhedrin was that of blasphemy, and the Jew- 
ish court condemned him on that charge ; but 
the Roman authorities had deprived the Jews ol 
the power to inflict the death penalty, so they 
had to resort to the Roman court. They knew 
that the charge of blasphemy was not actionable 
in the Roman court, so they had to bring the 
other charge which has been mentioned. Pilate 
examined the testimony, and found Jesus not 
guilty ; but fanatical Jews threatened him with 
Csesar. '^ Thou art not Caesar's friend.'' " We 
are Caesar's friend." They did not remain 
Caesar's friend very long, for they continued to 
rebel until the Roman army finally destroyed 
their city, and scattered the nation. During the 
trial Pilate asked Jesus this question : " Art thou 
a king?" Jesus answered affirmatively, but 
stated that his kingdom was not of this world. 

The kingdom of Christ was entirely original 
and of divine origin. It was the fifth kingdom 
mentioned by the prophet, and is <lcstined to fill 
the whole earth. A kingdom has a spirit as 



CULTUEA. 231 

well as a body. In fact, the prophet represents 
the kingdoms of this world under the figure of 
a man. How could the kingdom of the Messiah 
affect those kingdoms which perished long be- 
fore its establishment ? They are all represented 
under one image, and animated by one spirit. 
While there was diversity in them, they were all 
governed by one fundamental principle, and that 
was to rule the world by force. Whatever 
tended to destroy that principle, of course, 
affected every kingdom governed by such a 
spirit. When the kingdom of Clirist overcomes 
the spirit of might which governs the kingdoms 
of this world it will be entirely triumphant. 

Jesus said, " My kingdom is not of this 
world'* (John xviii. 36). Our Lord uttered 
many things which were dark even to his own 
disciples. But none of his sayings were more 
dark than those which pertained to the spiritual 
character of his kingdom. The Jews had long 
looked for a great temporal ruler, who would 
free their country from foreign influence, and 
restore the kingdom to its political influence in 
the days of David and Solomon. The disciples 
of Christ did not understand the spiritual nature 



232 CULTURA. 

of the coming kingdom, even at the death of 
their Master. After his death they went a-fish- 
ing, and gave up all as lost. They said that 
they had thought he was the one to redeem Is- 
rael. After the resurrection of Jesus their hopes 
were revived, and they went to Jerusalem to 
await the fulfillment of the Father's promise. 
Wlien Jesus was assembled with them they 
asked him to restore the kingdom to Israel. 
This teaches us that the disciples even at that 
time did not understand the spiritual character 
of the kingdom of God. The character of the 
kingdom which Jesus was to establish rose far 
above the conception of either Gentile or Jew. 
The Gentile had no conception above that of 
despotic rule. Even the Grecian republic sac- 
rificed the individual to the despotism of the 
State. Plato, in his ideal republic, but poorly 
recognized the true value of individualism. 
While the Jewish ideal of kingdom was more 
religious than that of the Gentile, it fell far be- 
low the spiritual nature of the fifth kingdom por- 
trayed in the second ch'.pter of Daniel. The 
kingdom of Israel was both political and relig- 
ious, like Mohammedanism. Considering the 



CTJLTURA. 233 

condition of governmental science in the days of 
the Saviour, there was no possibility of either 
Gentile or Jew reaching, by the resources of 
this world alone, the ideal kingdom presented by 
Jesus Christ. We must, therefore, conclude that 
the kingdom of Christ is of divine and not 
human origin. It even required superhuman 
power to teach the disciples of Christ the spir- 
itual character of their Master's reign. 

The original spirit of peace, breathed by 
the kingdom of Christ upon the kingdoms of 
this world, met with their bitter opposition. 
Paul wrote to the Hebrews that the v/ord of 
God was sharper than any two-edged sword. 
It was only the few in that day who were pre- 
pared to accept such a statement. It was 
thoroughly tested in the conflict between the 
kingdom of Christ and the Roman Empire. 
The Romans used the sword with which they 
had conquered the nations. The disciples of 
Christ used the sword of the Spirit, and in 
three centuries the conflict ended in the tri- 
umphs of Christ's kingdom. 

The statement of Jesus, " My kingdom is not 
of this world,'' is poorly understood even at 



234 CULTURA. 

the present day. There is no better evidence 
that a cliuroh has apostatized than to see it 
trying to unite itself with the State. The 
kingdom of Christ is not of this world, and it 
consequently does not interfere with civil gov- 
ernment. It renders to Caesar what belougs 
to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God. 
A man can belong to Christ's kingdom, and 
at the same time be an obedient citizen of the 
government under which he lives. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, AND THE 
DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD. 

Striking manifestations of God's providence 
are sometimes called in the Bible the coming 
of the Son of man. This is true with regard 
to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the mirac- 
ulous manifestation of the Holy Spirit on the 
day of Pentecost. Some confound these provi- 
dential comings with the second personal com- 
ing of Christ. At his second personal coming 
Jesus will come in the clouds with the holy 
angels. The clouds and the angels are not 
connected with his providential comings. 



CTJLTUEA. 235 

1. The second personal coming of Christ is 
yet future. This the Bible makes very plain. 
Let us now carefully study its teaching on this 
point: (i) We learn, from Acts i. 11, that 
Christ is to come in the same way that he 
went into heaven. He will then come in per- 
son and ill a cloud. He will gather all nations 
before him, wliich event has not yet taken place 
(Matthew XXV. 31, 32). We will now explain 
Matthew xvi. 27, 28. In the twenty-seventh 
verse it is stated : '' The Son of man shall come 
in the glory of the Father with the angels." 
In the twenty -eighth verse : " There be some 
standing here who shall not taste of death till 
they see the Son of man coming in his king- 
dom." Tlie meaning is that Christ will come 
at the end of his reign to judge the world; 
and for proof of this he tells them that some 
would live to see the beginning of his reign. 
(2) In Acts iii. 19-21, it is clearly taught that 
the second coming of Christ is yet future. The 
heavens are to retain him until the times of 
the restitution of all things spoken by the 
prophets since the beginning of the world. 
There are many prophecies yet to be fulfilled. 



236 CULTURA. 

(3) Jesus, in Luke xxi. 24, foretells the fate of 
the Jewish natiou. Christ will not come until 
all these things are fulfilled. Then he will 
come in a cloud with power and great glory 
(Matt. xxi. 27). (4) Paul, in his letter to the 
Colosbians, teaches that Christ^s second coming 
is yet to be fulfilled. In the third chapter and 
fourth verse we have this languaare : " When 
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall 
ye also appear with him in glory. ^^ This is an 
event which is yet to be accomplished. The 
saints will in the future, at the coming of Christ, 
appear with him in glory. 

2. The second personal coming of Christ will 
be after the millennium. The word millennium 
is derived from the Latin mille, a thousand, 
and annus, a year, and it means a thousand 
years. While the Latin derivative, millennium, 
is not found in the Bible, its English equivalent 
is ; so the subject of millennium is one of the 
deepest interest to all Bible students. We will 
now call attention to some things which will 
immediately precede the millennium, (a) The 
Bible clearly teaches that the fall of the Turkish 
Empire will precede the millennium, and be an 



CUL.TURA. 237 

important preparation for it. In Daniel ii. 45, 
we have the plain declaration that he will come 
to his end, and none will help him. I believe 
that Bible scholars are quite well united as to 
the meaning of this verse. In Revelation xvi. 
12, there is doubtless reference to the final de- 
struction uf the Ottoman Empire. The pouring 
out of the seven vials refers to God's judgments 
upon the enemies of his Church. The fourth 
vial probably represents the career of Napoleon 
the Great, who was called by his troops the 
Little Suu, and who humiliated the most des- 
potic power that ever wielded the scepter over 
Europe. The fifth vial may represent the king 
of Italy, who poured out his own wrath upon 
the seat of the beast himself. The sixth vial 
consummates the career of the Turkish rulers, 
and prepares the way f )r the kings of the East. 
In the allotment of Palestine, Michael will 
stand up for the children of Israel (Dan. xii. 1- 
3.) God has a wise design in keeping the Jews 
a distinct people, although they are scattered 
throughout the nations. Jesus stated that they 
would fall by the edge of the sword, and be led 
captive among all nations, and that Jerusalem 



238 CULTURA. 

would be trodden down by the Gentiles until 
the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled (Luke 
xxi. 24). When the times of the Gentiles aro 
fulfilled, the Jews will doubtless have much to 
do in establishing a true civilization in the East. 
In Romans xi. 15, Paul says : " For if the casting 
away of them be the reconciling of the world, 
what shall the receiving of them be, but life 
from the dead V^ The receiving of the Israel- 
ites is called by the apostle a life from the dead. 
This we verily believe is the first resurrection 
of Revelation, twentieth chapter. The thirty- 
seventh chapter of Ezekiel gives a very graphic 
description of a resurrection, which is doubtless 
identical with the first resurrection of the Apoc- 
alypse. In the eleventh verse of this chapter, 
the prophet makes the following statement: 
"These bones are the whole house of Israel." 
In the twelfth verse, the restoration of the Jews 
is placed beyond all doubt. " Behold, O my 
people, I will open your graves, and cause you 
to come out of your graves, and bring you into 
the land of Israel." The Jews are buried 
among the nations, and there are certainly 
providential indications that they will have 



CULTURA. 239 

much to do in planting a true civilization in the 
East. 

For a number of centuries that part of the 
world which was first Christianized, has been 
under the dominion of the prince of darkness. 
Why is it that the Christian religion lost its in- 
fluence in that part of the world where it was 
first promulgated ? It was because of apostasy 
on the part of the Church. It became worldly, 
and ceased using the sword of the Spirit, with 
which alone it could conquer. The last of the 
apostles wrote to the seven churches of Asia 
Minor concerning their departure from the 
true principles of Christianity. Of the seven 
churches addressed, there was but one which he 
did not reprimand. Those churches represented 
the condition of the Christian Church in the 
East at that time ; and they were warned that 
their candlestick would be removed unless they 
repented. 

The Apostle Paul also wrote concerning the 
great apostasy, and the temporary triumphs of 
the Man of Sin. The infidel boastingly asks. 
What has become of your Christianity in the 
East ? If Christianity civilizes the nations, how 



240 CULTURA. 

does it happen that there is no civilization in 
the East? A great writer has said that in the 
East there is no home. It is from the fact that 
there is now no Christian civilization in the East 
that there is no home. When the Church in the 
East compromised with the kingdoms of this 
world, it lost its power, and they triumphed over 
it. They had been conquered, but the conqueror 
submitted to the conquered. The children of 
the world manifested more wisdom in their 
generation than did the children of light. All 
these reverses of the kingdom of God were 
clearly predicted by the apostles ; so God 
ordained that even the misfortunes of his 
people should become evidence of the inspira- 
tion of the Bible. 

Although the kingdom of Satan is permitted 
for a time to wield the scepter over the East, 
God has clearly shown that this dominion will 
come to an end, and the Church of Christ will 
triumph in the Orient. 

Some claim that Christ will come at the 
beginning of the millennium, raise the righteous 
dead, reign with them a thousand years, and 
then raise the wicked dead. I think that the 



CULTURA. 241 

Bible clearly teaches that the righteous and 
the wicked dead will be raised at the same time. 
In John vi. 54, it is taught that the righteous 
will be raised at the last day. If the wicked 
were raised one thousand years after the right- 
eous, it would be one thousand years after the 
last day. In John v. 25-29, it is clearly 
taught that both the righteous and wicked will 
be raised the same hour. Paul, in I. Corinthians 
XV. 61-52, says : " Behold I show you a mys- 
tery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall be 
changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall 
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorrupti- 
ble, and we shall be changed." The righteous 
will be raised at the sounding of the last trum- 
pet; if the wicked are raised a thousand years 
after the righteous, what trumpet will raise them? 
If the same trumpet, it will sound one thousand 
years, and disturb the peace of the saints during 
the millennium. The position we have taken is 
in perfect harmony with the language of Paul 
in I. Thessalonians iv. 15-18. He does not 
teach that the righteous dead will be raised 
before the wicked dead, but that the righteous 



242 CULTURA. 

dead will be raised before the righteous living are 
caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The 
righteous dead will be raised first, and together 
with the righteous living they will be caught up 
to meet the Lord. 

Paul identifies a denial of the resurrection 
with infidelity, for he declares that if the dead 
are not raised, then Christ was not raised. If 
Christ was not raised, he pronounced himself a 
false witness (I. Cor. xv. 16-18). There are 
some even among professed Christians who deny 
the doctrine of the resurrection. A great effort 
is being made to explain away that portion of 
the Bible which so clearly teaches that the dead 
will be raised. It is claimed that the resurrec- 
tion of the spirit fulfills the Bible statements in 
reference to the resurrection. The spirit will 
never be buried in the grave, so as to rise again. 
At death the spirit immediately goes to God who 
gave it. The word resurrection is from the 
Latin re, again, and surge y to rise, and it has 
reference to the body, and not to the spirit. 
Christ^s body was raised before it saw corrup- 
tion, and his resurrection is made by Paul posi- 
tive evidence that the dead will be raised. The 



CULTURA. 243 

body which is sown will be raised, but changed. 
The raised body will not be identical in particles 
of matter with the body sown, but in form and 
appearance they will be alike. The bodies of 
the saints, who are alive at the coming of Christ, 
will also be changed. The body sown is mate- 
rial, but the body raised will be spiritual. In 
the future state man will have a spiritual body 
exactly adapted to the spirit. 

(6) In Ezekiel, thirty- eighth chapter, we learn 
that Gog from his north quarters, with certain 
associates, will try to interfere with the new civ- 
ilization of the Orient. The seventh vial o 
Revelation, sixteenth chapter, doubtless refers t^ 
the same thing. The dragon, the beast, and the 
false prophet seem to represent Russia, Papal 
Rome, and Mohammedanism. There is no other 
power so much like ancient Rome as is Russia. 
The word Czar is simply a contraction of Caesar. 
These tyrannical powers will try to drive the 
new civilization from Palestine, but will be com- 
pletely overthrown in the battle of Armageddon, 
which will doubtless result in the conversion of 
many of the Israelites to Christianity. Great 
Britain, the Tarshish of modern times, will 



244 CULTUEA. 

evidently oppose Eussia in the great eastern 
conflict. 

3. The second personal coming of Christ is 
connected with the judgment and punishment of 
the wicked. Man was created to the lofty am- 
bition of an infinite good, and the unperverted 
man is never satisfied until he finds it. Man 
has ever been the object of heaven's tender and 
special predilection, and there is nothing in the 
universe which can destroy man except his 
willful disobedience to the divine government. 

(a) It is certain that there will be a judgment. 
There are some who claim that the judgment is 
past, but this position contradicts, the twenty- 
fifth chapter of Matthew, which teaches that 
Jesus will come with all his holy angels, and 
gather all nations before him. He has not yet 
judged the quick and the dead (Acts x. 42). 
We learn from Acts xvii. 31 that God has ap- 
pointed a day in which he will judge the world 
in righteousness by Jesus Christ, whom he raised 
from the dead. Paul wrote to Timothy that 
Christ would judge the quick and the dead at 
his appearing and his kingdom (II. Tim. iv. 1). 

(b) At the judgment the wicked will go away 



CULTUEA, 245 

into everlasting punishment. God delivers the 
righteous out of temptations and reserves the 
ungodly until the day of judgment to be pun- 
ished (II. Peter ii. 9). It is certain that an 
adequate punishment is not inflicted upon the 
wicked in this life. All persons of observation 
know that this is a fact. Some of the purest 
and best persons in the world suffer pain almost 
without mitigation. The eminent and godly 
Robert Hall is an example of this. Frequently 
wicked men live through life almost without a 
pain. Says one, They suffer in conscience. There 
are some who have the conscience almost dor- 
mant. It will not be aroused until the terrors 
of the judgment day bring it to sensibility. 

It is claimed that God will not punish man 
eternally for the sins committed in this life. It 
must be remembered that the enormity of a 
crime is not determined by the length of time 
it takes to commit it. In a few minutes a man 
may commit a deed which will destroy his pros- 
pects so far as this life is concerned. May he 
not, therefore, in a lifetime be guilty of crimes 
sufficient to destroy his future prospects ? If a 
man can so live here as to obtain eternal life, it 



246 CULTURA. 

looks reasonable that he can also live in such a 
way as to fail in obtaining it. Besides, the bent 
of a man's life in the wrong direction may be 
such that it can not be counteracted. A body 
may go so far from the sun that centripetal force 
can no longer hold it in its orbit. So a man may 
get so far from the Sun of Righteousness that 
the magnetic power of this spiritual Sun will no 
longer affect him. 

The Bible clearly teaches that the punishment 
of the wicked will be eternal. In Mark iii. 29 
we have this statement : " But he that shall blas- 
pheme against the Holy Spirit hath never for- 
giveness, but is in danger of eternal condemna- 
tion." The person who will never be forgiven 
will, of course, be punished forever. His pun- 
ishment is the necessary result of his conduct, 
and not because God delights in the punishment 
of any one. In Matthew xxv. 46 Jesus says: 
" And these shall go away into everlasting pun- 
ishment, but the righteous into life eternal." 
The same aionion which expresses the duration 
of the life of the righteous also expresses the 
punishment of the wicked. It is a law of lan- 
guage that antithetical expressions are equal in 



CULTURA. 247 

extent, but the opposite in character. The pun- 
ishment of the wicked is, then, as end lees as the 
happiness of the righteous. In Revelation xx. 
10 we have the expression, " tormented day and 
night forever and ever," which is the duplicate 
of aion, and it is nowhere limited in the New 
Testament. The same expression is found in 
Revelation xiv. 11 : " The smoke of their tor- 
ment ascendeth up forever and ever." There is 
certainly no hope for those who die in willful 
rebellion against God. 

4. The destruction of the world will take 
place at the second personal coming of Christ 
(II. Peter iii. 10). This earth has undergone 
many changes since its creation. One of the 
most important of these was the deluge. A 
little more than a century ago infidels declared 
that there was not enough water in the world to 
produce such a flood as the one described by 
Moses. Geologists have ascertained that vast 
boulders have been brought here from the 
Arctic regions even over the highest mountains. 
It has also been maintained that there is too 
much water for the earth to be destroyed by fire. 
Scientists now declare that beneath the crust of 



248 CULTURA. 

the earth there is a vast mass of fire ; so that the 
wonder now is that the earth has not long since 
been destroyed. 

The most recent astronomers are of the opin- 
ion that the earth is approaching the sun, and 
the time will come when it will fctrike the cen- 
tral body. Friction will then set the solar sys- 
tem on fire. This is certainly in harmony with 
the following language of the apostle Peter; 
" The day of the Lord will come as a thief in 
the night ; in the which the heavens shall pass 
away with a great noise, and the elements shall 
melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the 
works that are therein shall be burned up.'' 
Science teaches that matter is indestructible, and 
intimates that from the chaotic state new heav- 
ens and new earth will be formed. The Bible 
clearly teaches that such will be the case. 



(©HAPTBI^ lU. 

The Supernatural Character of Christ. 

What think ye of the Christ ? is the most fun- 
damental interrogation that has ever been pro- 
pounded to men. For nearly nineteen centuries 
it has been the most vital question among all 
classes. Even unbelievers can not let it alone, 
for they feel that their eternal well-being might 
depend upon a proper answer to it. We do not 
understand by the supernatural something con- 
trary to all reason, but that which is superhuman 
and above the common laws of nature. We be- 
lieve that the supernatural comes within the 
domain of law, but it is a higher law than any 
with whicli we are now acquainted. All nature 
originated in the miraculous, and it is impossible 
for the world to get rid of the idea of miracle. 
In all this, however, we believe there was pro- 
found method. The mission of the Christ into 
this world Avas not witliout reason, for it was the 
grandest methodical arrangement of which man 
call form a conception. 



250 CULTURA. 

THE SUPERHUMAN WORKER. 

Nicodemus certainly expressed the belief of 
his age when he declared that no man could do 
the miracles which Jesus did except by super- 
human power. The character of the miracles 
convinced Nicodemus and the most candid that 
they were wrought by the power of God. Even 
the enemies of Jesus admitted that his works 
were superhuman, but tried to ascribe them to 
Satanic influence. I will only have space to call 
attention to two of the most noted miracles 
wrought by Jesus. 

1. The Healing of The Blind Man 
(John ix. 1-38). The ninth chapter of John is 
one of the most pathetic chapters in the Bible, 
and its life-like character can not fail to attract 
the attention of all students. It records one of 
the greatest miracles performed by Jesus ; and 
the circumstances connected with it were such 
that even the Jews were forced to acknowledge 
its genuineness. Their last resort was to attrib- 
ute it to Satanic influence ; but the beneficence 
of the work was such that Satan could not have 
had anything to do with it. He knew too much 



CULTURA. 251 

to work against himself, and thus divide his own 
kingdom. The candid student can not fail to 
perceive the supernatural character of Christ in 
the ninth chapter of John. 

The Jews believed that special suffering wag 
the consequence of special sin ; and as this man 
had been a great sufferer, they thought that 
either he or his parents had been guilty of great 
sin. Like the comforters of Job, they were a 
torment to the afflicted instead of sympathizing 
with them. They were too ready to pry into 
the secrets of others, and loved judgment better 
than mercy. Jesus was altogether of a different 
spirit. He saw the suffering man, and was anx- 
ious to relieve him. The cause of the man's 
condition was not then important ; but the im- 
portant thing was to so use it as to benefit the 
man and others. The language of Jesus does 
not imply that the man and his parents had not 
been guilty of sin, but that no special sin of 
theirs was the cause of the man's blindness. 

The sun was then rapidly declining towards 
the western horizon, and Jesus made use of that 
fact to teach an important lesson. He constant- 
ly made use of natural phenomena to explain 



252 CULTURA. 

the spiritual character of his life and work. As 
the light of the day is the appointed time to 
work, so the life and light before the grave is 
the appointed time to work for God. Jesus had 
no time to lose, for he knew that the grave was 
not far in the future. The same thing is true 
with us. Life is short, and death is certain. We 
must work while it is day, for the night of death 
will soon come, when man^s work is done. 

While in the world, Jesus was the light of the 
world. As physical light and life depend upon 
the sun, so all spiritual life and light depend 
upon the Sun of Righteousness. The sun dries 
up the quagmire, but his beams remain pure ; so 
the Sun of Righteousness mingled his beams 
with the darkest elements of unregenerate hu- 
manity, but remained himself as pure as the 
light of heaven's bright king. The ancients be- 
lieved that the saliva of one who had not broken 
his vow was good for weak eyes, and that clay 
would drive the tumors from the lids. Of course 
they had no remedy for one born blind. Jesus 
did not ignore means in his work, but used the 
common remedies, and gave them efficiency by 
his spiritual power. The man was told to go to 



CTJLTTTRA. 253 

Siloam and wash ; which he did, and was healed, 
This recalls the wasliing and healing of Naaman^ 
the Syrian. Jesus did his part, and the man had 
to do his. 

The man that had been healed was well known 
in Jerusalem, for he had long been a blind beg- 
gar. The people were so startled at the cure 
that a buzz went through the community, and 
some were disposed to deny the man's identity. 
There is an inherent love of recognition on the 
part of man, and tliere was too much manhood 
on the part of this man to lose his identity. 
The miracle had been wrought on the Sabbath 
day, and the Jews were perplexed about it. The 
rabbinical law forbade a man to put spittle even 
on one of his own eyes on the Sabbath. Jesus 
had not only put spittle on the man's eyes, but 
had actually mixed the saliva with clay. They 
felt that the law had been broken, and brought 
the man before the Pharisees. The man so 
faithfully narrated the facts concerning the cure 
that the Pharisees were puzzled. They sent for 
the parents of the man, who soon identified 
their son. The difficult question as to how the 
man had been healed was yet to settle. The 



254 CULTURA. 

knowledge the people had of him, and the fact 
that he could see, confirmed the truth of his 
statement. There was no possibility of getting 
rid of the fact of the miracle ; so the Pharisees 
affirmed that it was from an evil source, or it 
would not have been performed on the Sabbath 
day. Those who could look at it fairly were 
satisfied that God would not give to a sinner 
such power. The character of the miracle 
showed that it was from a good source, and the 
miracle itself proved the superhuman power of 
Jesus. 

2. The Raising of Lazarus (John xi. 1- 
64). The hostility of the Jews in Judea towards 
Jesus was such that he retired into Perea be- 
yond Jordan, and made his home at Bethabara, 
the place where he was baptized. His ministry 
there was very successful, and it is thought 
that at that time he sent out the seventy. It 
was an interesting place to him, for the shadow 
of Nebo, where Moses died, rested upon the 
valley. His Perean ministry was cut short by 
the news of his friend's illness. 

None are exempt from sickness. A man, by 
living up to the laws of hygiene, may postpone 



CULTURA. 255 

sickness a long time, but ultimately it will come. 
Keep a watch in good repair, and it will run a 
long time, but finally it will wear out. A man 
may live as long as did the philosopher Kant, 
and literally dry up ; but the human system is 
so constituted that it will wear out at last. 

As his name indicates, La/arus was a godly 
man, and his house had frequently been a home 
for Jesus. It appears that all the family had 
died except a brother and two sisters, and these 
sisters necessarily felt greatly dependent upon 
that brother. Jesus greatly loved that pious 
family, and the mutual friendship that there 
existed has forever sanctified true friendship. 
When we are in trouble we want our intimate 
friends to know it; so these girls sent a very 
modest message to Jesus. They evidently knew 
the cause of his retirement, and did not want 
him brought into danger, but felt that he must 
know the news. As soon as Jesus learned of 
his friend's sickness he decided the result. His 
language is marvelous, and shows that he un- 
derstood all God's plans. The Son of God 
would be glorified in working the greatest mir- 
acle of his ministry; and this miracle would 



^56 CULTURA. 

hasten his own death and ultimate glorification. 
While the love of Jesus for Lazarus was great, 
it was under the control of reason, and could 
not conflict with duty. He had good reasons 
for remaining two days longer in Perea; and 
although Mary and Martha were in great 
trouble, it would be for their good. Christians 
need more patience in affliction, and should 
study God's will rather than their own pleas- 
ure. Our trials in this life only tend to greater 
joy hereafter. 

When Jesus suggested the propriety of re- 
turning to Judea again, the disciples only 
thought of danger and of death. These things 
did not trouble their Master. He only thought 
of duty, and was ready to face anything in its 
way. It was doubtless early in the morning 
when they started, and this suggested the beau- 
tiful figure of working while it is day. God 
had given him a special time for work, and it 
could not be neglected or delayed under any 
circumstances. Jesus always worked by his 
Father^s timepiece. When he spoke of the 
sleep of Lazarus, the disciples were ready to 
make excuse for remaining in Perea, on the 



CfULTURA. 257 

ground that sleep indicated returning health. 
Sleep is a beautiful emblem of death, and is 
so used in the Bible. As returning day awakes 
man from the sleep of night, so the day of 
judgment will awake him from the sleep of 
death. Jesus finally told them that Lazarus 
was actually dead, and expressed his gratitude 
that Providence had so arranged affairs that 
he was away from Judea during the sickness 
of his friend. He thus intimates that he would 
have healed Lazarus of his sickness, and, of 
course, the miracle would not have been so 
great as raising him from the dead. Nothing 
appeals so powerfully to the senses and imagi- 
nation as raising the dead. 

The raising of Lazarus is the highest point 
in the personal ministry of Christ. It was the 
greatest of his miracles, and a prelude to his 
own resurrection. The philosopher Spinoza de- 
clared that if he could believe that Jesus raised 
Lazarus, he would tear to shreds his own philo- 
sophic system, and accept the creed of Chris- 
tians. The theories of skeptics to explain 
away this great miracle have been so inconsist- 
ent that the thoughtful have been compelled 



258 CULTURA. 

to reject them. They are not in harmony with 
what these writers have said was the character 
of Christ. The narrative has the true marks 
of authentic history, and the faithful historian 
has no right to reject it. 

Jewish sepulchers were out of town, and were 
either natural caverns, or artificial ones hewn 
out of solid rock, with recesses in the side 
where the dead were laid. The door was closed 
with a large stone to keep away beasts of prey. 
When Jesus commanded the stone to be taken 
away, Martha objected that the body had been 
buried long enough to become offensive. The 
Jews claimed that death was caused by a drop 
of gall falling from the sword of an angel, and 
on the fourth day decay commenced, so that 
the spirit departed, to return no more until 
the resurrection. Jesus gently reproved Martha 
for her lack of faith, and assured her of the 
results of a proper exercise of it. They re- 
moved the stone, which was all they could do. 
God requires man to do his part ; and what he 
can not do for himself, Jehovah does for him. 
The raising of Lazarus had been determined 
before leaving Perea, and the prayer which he 



CULTURA. 259 

offered at the grave was especially designed for 
the benefit of those present. When Jesus spoke 
the word Lazarus came forth, and all the sweet 
memories of the past illuminated his counte- 
nance. The vivid imagination of Homer pre- 
served from decay the body of a hero only for 
noble burial. God does not forget his heroes, 
and looked after the body of the faithful Laz- 
arus until it was reanimated by the conscious 
spirit. The loud voice that brought Lazarus 
from the graye will be heard again (I. Thess. 
iv. 16; I. Cor. xv. 52); then all that are in 
their graves will come forth. A spiritual body 
will be raised — one that will be exactly adapted 
to the spirit. Conscious identity will have been 
preserved by the spirit ; so when it enters into 
the spiritual body all the sweet memories of tlie 
past will be perfectly vivid before the mind. 
Not only will the friends of the past be re- 
* membered, but many things forgotten in this 
world will be brought back to the mind, as 
man will then have a body which will not im- 
pede the activity of the mind. 

The conscious spirit will not sleep 
In a grave of dreamless night ; 



260 CULTURA. 

But will bring even from the deep 
The body into endless light. 

The longings of the human soul 
Are God-like germs that will grow, 

Until man's fondest hopes unfold 
A heavenly fruitage unknown below. 

The conscious memory does outlive 
The changes of every seven years' span; 

If God does to it such power give, 
Why not it survive the age of man ? 

Thought must survive the shock of death, 
It mingles not with lifeless clay ; 

So when man breathes his latest breath, 
The soul departs for endless day. 

THE AUTHORITATIVE TEACHER. 

The teachings of Christ prove his divine ori- 
gin. It can not be said of him that he simply 
taught good things, for everything he taught 
was absolutely perfect. At the conclusion of 
his grand sermon on the mountain the people 
were astonished at his teaching, for he taught 
with authority, and not as their scribes. The 
first seven beatitudes of that sermon ought to 
convince every honest mind of the divine mis- 
sion of Jesus. They refer to traits of character 
and states of mind, and are paradoxical ; for the 
world's coqceptiop of the man who is superla- 



CULTUKA. 261 

lively blessed has always been the opposite of 
what is taught in them. The doctrine was new 
and strange, not only to the heathen world, but 
also to the most cultivated students of the Jew- 
ish law. The truth of all these maxims has 
been fully realized by all that have accepted and 
practiced them. They make up a perfect char- 
acter. 

There have been many great teachers, but 
none who taught with the authority with which 
Jesus taught. The authors of the great ethnic 
religions of the world were preeminently great, 
and they met many of the wants of the human 
heart; but they did not possess the universal 
spirit and authority which Jesus of Nazareth 
possessed. It is strange to me that those who 
do not believe in the divinity of Christ still 
claim that he possessed a perfect character. If 
he was not the Son of God, he was the most 
superlative egotist and hypocrite in the world. 
If only a man had used the language of the 
precious invitation it would have been consid- 
ered the most consummate egotism. Think of 
even a Socrates or Plato saying : " Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and ar^ heavy laden, and / 



262 CULTUBA. 

will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and 
learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart ; 
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my 
yoke is easy, and my burden is light.'' Such 
language, as original, would be unbearable in 
the greatest of men ; but when we understand 
that it originated with the Saviour, it becomes 
the most pathetic language in the Bible. 

If Jesus was not the Son of God, he was a 
hypocrite ; for he claimed to come down from the 
Father, and to do the will of Him that sent him. 
He was in haste to do this, lest the night come, 
when no man could work. All historians see 
in his life and character the impress of sincerity. 
When this is acknowledged, the divinity of Jesus 
necessarily follows; for no deceiver could be 
honest and sincere, as was he. Jesus was pre- 
eminently a talker. ** Never man spake like 
this man,'' was the testimony of even his ene- 
mies. The difference between the writings of 
the greatest men and the words of Jesus is the 
difference between a mere inquiry and a revela- 
tion. When we read even the writings of the 
sages we fear that they will go to extremes, or 
turn off at a wrong angle, as men have generally 



CULTURA. 263 

done ; but Jesus always said just what should be 
said, and did exactly what was right to do. He 
was always right, and his opponents were always 
wrong. He taught with authority, and not as 
the scribes of the Jewish law. 

It is sometimes said that Jesus taught with 
the authoritative tone and earnestness of a Jew. 
Moses spake with the authoritative tone and 
earnestness of a Jew, yet Jesus abrogated much 
that Moses had inaugurated. The prophets 
spake with authority and earnestness, and yet 
they spoke of another, and not of themselves. 
The disciples of Christ did not lack in the ear- 
nestness and authoritative tone of Jews; but 
what they said and did was in the name of 
Jesus. They had gotten their authority from 
Him who had all authority in heaven and in 
earth. In our day great teachers preserve their 
instructions in book form. Sometimes there is 
a wonderful display of art. Jesus taught without 
any apparent reference to the preservation of his 
discourses. He seems to have taught only for 
the hour, yet his sayings have illuminated the 
world. This can not be accounted for on the 
ground that he taught with the authority and 



264 CULTURA. 

earnestness of a Jew. He taught as no Jew 
ever taught, for he was much more than a Jew. 
He was an original and infallible teacher. He 
went in direct opposition to the methods of this 
world. He went to the poor instead of seeking 
aid of the wealthy and powerful. He asked no 
Vanderbilt to endow a university. He did not 
select his disciples from among the powerful 
sects of Palestine, but fishermen of Galilee were 
chosen. He was an infallible teacher, for he 
never made a mistake. This can not be said of 
any of the great men of earth. Men are prone 
to error, and some of the greatest men have 
made some of the greatest mistakes. Jesus was 
also a sympathizing teacher. He felt a great in- 
terest in the progress and happiness of his 
students. His soul was full of sympathy and 
love for them. His love wins the heart and 
subdues the will of every one who abides in 
his teaching. 

No man ever taught in parables as did Jesus. 
I do not mean by this that the parabolic style 
was not common in the East at that time, but 
simply that Jesus carried the style to perfec- 
tion. I have room for only two illustra- 



CULTURA. 265 

tions, but they touch the vital question of all 
ages. 

1. The Good Samaritan (Luke x. 30-37). 
The spirit of sectarianism in the days of our 
Saviour was very bitter. The nations were also 
very hostile towards one another. The Jews 
would not even admit the Samaritans as prose- 
lytes, but believed that every Samaritan had a 
demon. In the parable of the Good Samaritan 
Jesus taught the universal brotherhood of man, 
and that even a Samaritan could be the true 
neighbor of a Jew. This drama is a perfect 
work of art. 

Act I. A man goes down from Jerusalem 
to Jericho. It was a rough and bloody way, 
and was infested with banditti. The mountain 
caves concealed men more terrible than the 
wild scenes they haunted. The ruffians fall 
upon the man, who defends himself to the best 
of his ability. Overpowered by numbers, he 
finally falls to the ground. They give what 
they suppose to be the fatal blow, rob him, 
and depart. 

Act II. Two new characters now appear 
upon the scene. A priest and Levite are going 



266 CULTURA. 

down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They are 
ministers of religion, and we naturally suppose 
that they will look after their own countryman. 
Tacitus, while he painted in the very darkest 
colors the conduct of the Jews towards other 
nations, admitted that they were usually kind 
to one another. In this case, however, even 
the priest thought he had sufficient excuse for 
passing the wounded man. The Levite added 
to his cruelty by looking on the dying man 
without even then showing mercy. 

Act III. The pool of blood is growing 
larger and larger as life gradually ebbs away. 
A Samaritan now appears upon the scene. 
With a full knowledge of the hostility of the 
Jews towards his people, and the cruelty with 
which a Jew would treat him under like cir- 
cumstances, he still has mercy upon the poor, 
wounded man, and lends a helping hand even 
to an enemy. It is not necessary to further 
describe the conduct of the Samaritan, but it 
is sufficient to state that he did not in any 
sense neglect the object of his benefaction. 
Even the Jewish lawyer was compelled to ad- 
mit that the Samaritan was the true neighbor. 



CULTURA. 267 

One great problem in the science of sociology 
is in reference to a proper disposition of the 
dangerous element in society. Jesus knew 
exactly what ought to be done with this class, 
and spent much time in teaching publicans and 
sinners a higher life. Like the sunbeam, he 
passed through the foulest atmosphere without 
becoming infected, and it was to him a pleas- 
ure to teach a spiritual life to the most de- 
graded. To this the Pharisees objected, and 
our Saviour in parables presented perfect pic- 
tures of human life. 

2. The Prodigal Son (Luke xv. 11-32). 
We have here another perfect work of art, and 
I defy any critic to find anything in the litera- 
ture of the world at all comparable to this 
wonderful delineation of character given by the 
Great Artist. It is certainly a perfect model. 

Scene I. A man has two sons, and the 
younger becomes tired of his paternal home, 
and asks for a division of the property. The 
father was indulgent, and consented to this re- 
quest. This young man takes his property, 
and goes into a foreign country. His substance 
is soon wasted in riotous living. How true to 



268 CULTURA. 

life is this picture. He did exactly what fast 
young men usually do. When his money is 
gone his companions have no further use for 
.him, and he is in trouble. 

Scene II. Necessity forces him to engage 
himself to a citizen of the country where he 
is sojourning, and he is sent into the field to 
feed swine. The Jew intensely hated the hog, 
and swine meat he would not eat. This young 
man is reduced to the great humiliation, and 
becomes a companion of the swine even in his 
daily food. 

Scene III. In his great extremity the moral 
nature of the young man finally triumphed. 
When he compared his present condition to his 
surroundings before he left his father's bouse, 
it almost drove him mad. He determined to 
return to his father, even if it became necessary 
for him to become a hired servant. The father 
received him with open arms, and restored' him 
to his original position in the household. Let 
all humanitarians teach as did Jesus the Father^ 
hood of God and the universal brotherhood of 
man, and there will not be much trouble in 
managing the dangerous classes. Our Saviour 



CULTURA. 269 

was the only teacher who presented an effectual 
plan for the complete redemption of man. 

The teaching of Jesus has stood the test of 
time. What has become of the philosophers 
who were contemporary with him? With the 
exception of a few, they have gone into forget- 
fiilness, to be heard of no more until the un- 
folding of the records of the last judgment. 
What has become of the great statesmen of 
Greece and Rome? With the exception of a 
few, they, too, have passed from the record of 
time, and have gone into the shades of forget- 
fulness. What has become of the Jewish doc- 
tors who lived in the days of Jesus ? Their 
names have also perished, and they have lefl 
but few footprints on the sands of time. The 
name of Jesus acquires more influence day by 
day. How understand this without admitting 
that he was a divine teacher? The admissions 
of those not favorable to Jesus in his day are 
sufficient to show that his teaching was of super- 
human origin. His questions to the Jews about 
the baptism of John silenced them, and showed 
that they despised the truth. They admitted 
that he cast out demons, and tried to explain 



270 CULTURA. 

it away. Judas, the traitor, understood all the 
private counsels of Jesus, and confessed that 
he had betrayed the innocent. The wife of 
Pilate, and even the governor himself, pro- 
nounced Jesus innocent. The guards at the 
sepulcher were witnesses of his divine power. 

THE PERFECT CHARACTER OF CHRIST. 

The life of Jesus exactly corresponded with 
his teaching, for he perfectly practiced what 
he taught. Not a man among the keen-eyed 
critics, or the vilest opposers of Christianity, 
has been able to produce a single instance 
where Jesus violated in practice what he had 
taught. How account for this without admit- 
ting the divine character of Jesus? 

The marvelous events connected with the in- 
carnation made a deep impression upon the mind 
of Mary, the mother of Jesus. At the age of 
twelve he conversed with the learned doctors of 
the law in Jerusalem, and they were surprised at 
the precocity of the boy. His conduct on this 
occasion perfectly harmonized with the events 
connected with his birth, and it is opposed to 
the mythical theory. The home life of Jesus of 



CULTURA. 271 

Nazareth can never be explained upon the 
hypothesis of the mystics. There the greater 
portion of his life was spent in a business pur- 
suit. In the carpenter^s trade he was preparing 
himself for a master builder, and he is now fit- 
ting up mansions in the city of God for all who 
love and obey him. The home of Jesus was a 
despised village in Galilee. It was considered 
unfortunate to live in Galilee, and disgraceful to 
live in Nazareth. The enemies of Jesus af- 
firmed that nothing good could possibly come 
out of Nazareth. Although Nazareth was poor, 
it had surroundings that made it a pleasant 
home. It was situated in a secluded vale. The 
bright Syrian sunshine bathed its hills and 
mountains with a calm and lovely light. The 
wild paths among the hills where Jesus trod 
were calculated to excite sublime and holy 
thoughts. In the early morn the silvery foliage 
of olive trees shone like the frost in the shining 
sun. The limestone cliffs in the surrounding 
hills formed a beautiful contrast to the bright 
green barley fields in the low winding valleys. 
Whatever men may have thought of Nazareth, 
Jesus found it a home, for thirty years, exactly 



272 CULTURA. 

suited to his wants. Other great leaders would 
have selected homes in places very different from 
Nazareth, but Jesus knew better than they where 
the most pleasant home was to be found. 

The life of Jesus has been compared to that of 
Socrates and Plato. These great philosophers 
seemed to realize their own weakness, and 
looked for a perfect type of mankind to be sent 
down from heaven. They appear to have antic- 
ipated the coming of Christ. Those who com- 
pare Christ to the Greek sages to find inferiority 
are certainly not very close students of history. 
Think for a moment of the contrast. (1) Socra- 
tes and Plato were brought up in the great liter- 
ary center of the world, and had the advantage 
of a Greek education. Jesus was brought up 
in a despised village of Galilee, and spent thirty 
years at manual labor. (2) Socrates and Plato 
traveled extensively in foreign countries, and be- 
came thoroughly versed in the erudition of their 
age. Jesus spent but little time outside of the 
bounds of Palestine. (3) The Greek sages did 
not commence teaching until middle life, and 
taught until they were old men. Jesus com- 
menced teaching when he was only thirty years 



CULTURA. 273 

of age, and he was put to death before he was 
thirty-four. When we compare his universal 
spirit with the narrowness of even the Greek 
sages his character towers above theirs as a great 
mountain towers above the sea. 

Jesus has also been compared to Mohammed. 
Those who are acquainted with Mohammedan- 
ism know that it is largely made up of Judaism 
and Christianity. About all that is good in it 
has been gotten from these sources. It appears 
to me the very height of presumption to pretend 
to compare the moral character of Christ to that 
of Mohammed. (1) Mohammed was a polyga- 
mist, and degraded the home. Christ elevated 
woman and the home. (2) Mohammed hated 
his enemies and waged war against them. Jesus 
loved his enemies, and prayed for their forgive- 
ness. (3) Mohammed established a politico- 
ecclesiastical despotism, which is out of all har- 
mony with modern civilization. Jesus estab- 
lished a universal kingdom, which teaches peace 
on earth and good will among men. The char- 
acter of Christ stands apart from that of all 
other men, and Jesus himself is the miracle of 
history. Considered as a work of art, we must 



274 , CTJLTURA. 

refer the character of Christ to the Great Artist. 
It did not originate with the Jews ; for it taught 
lessons antipodal to Jewish thought, and directly 
contrary to the aspiration of that people. This 
character was not invented by the disciples of 
Christ, for it required miracles to convince them 
of its real worth. After the resurrection of 
Jesus, when he was assembled with his disciples 
in Jerusalem, they asked him, saying, "Lord, 
wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to 
Israel?^' (Acts i. 6). They did not understand 
thus far the true design of his mission. No such 
character as that of Jesus could be invented this 
side of the throne of God. It was the work of 
the Great Artist. " This is my beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased." " Who is the image 
of the invisible God, the first-born of every 
creature " (Col. i. 16). The character of Jesus 
possesses a fullness and a uniqueness that does 
not belong to the character of men. It requires 
a combination of the excellencies in the charac- 
ter of all the Old Testament worthies to give us 
even a faint conception of the character of 
Christ. Nature is also exhausted of its rich re- 
sources in portraying to us the exact image of 



CULTUKA. 275 

God. Jesus is the chief corner-stone ; the lion 
of the tribe of Judah ; the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world ; the San of 
Righteousness and light of the world ; the root 
and offspring of David, the bright and morning 
star. Negatively speaking, the character of 
Jesus presents perfection ; for he was free from 
selfishness, from national prejudices, and from 
worldly ambition. It does not belong to men to 
be thus free. 

The careful student of the life of Christ finds 
presented in it a perfect character. It is strange 
that the people in general are not more im> 
pressed with the perfect character of Jesus. 
There is so much novelty in man's nature that 
good persons will frequently take more interest 
in some eccentric fanatic than in the perfect 
character presented in the New Testament. We 
account for it on the principle that men are 
more interested in a torch light than they 
are in the great orb of day. As the study of the 
sun is neglected by the masses, so it is only the 
few who faithfully study the character of the 
Sun of Righteousness. Artists in their por- 
traits of Christ represent all his faculties as per- 



276 CITLTURA. 

fectly developed ; so he lacked nothing in the 
intellect, in the sensibilities, or in the will. He 
had a heart of universal sympathy. His love 
could not be confined to any one nation ; but it 
embraced the world within the bounds of its 
comprehensiveness. He had a perfect will, and 
was, therefore, able to resist all temptation and 
live a perfect life. He is the way, the truth, 
and the life. 



Paul at Athens. 

the city of athens. 

Athens is supposed to have been founded by 
Cecrops, 1550 B. C. It was at first built upon 
the summit of a high rock, doubtless as a pro- 
tection against attacks from the sea. It was for 
a time called Cecropia, for Cecrops ; but finally 
received the name of Athens, from its being un- 
der the protection of Athene, or Minerva. It 
did not grow rapidly until after the Trojan war ; 
but soon after that it became one of the most 
Important cities of Greece. When Xerxes in- 
vaded Greece it was burned, and the old city 
almost entirely destroyed. The battle of Sala- 
mis, however, averted all danger of subjugation, 
and Athens rapidly emerged from a heap of 
ruins to an important and flourishing city. It 
was strongly fortified by the foresighted and en- 
ergetic Themistocles, and in the days of Pericles 
it reached the loftiest height of grandeur, beauty 
and strength. The city of Athens represented 

277 



278 CULTURA. 

the highest literary and artistic culture of an- 
cient times. The Romans, in the most polished 
days of the Republic, sent their sons to Athens 
to he educated. While they despised the mili- 
tary character of the Athenians, they respected 
their learning. 

We can not agree with Mr. Buckleys exposi^ 
tion of the civilization of the Athenians. He 
makes material conditions absolutely supreme 
over the development of human history, and, in 
fact, of every individual. He makes man only 
passive in the hands of nature. With him material 
causes are almost the only causes of man's intel- 
lectual and moral improvement. According to 
this system of philosophy, the soil and climate of 
Greece was the cause of the civilization of the 
Hellenes. We believe the philosophy of Cous- 
in, Guyot, and Carl Ritter to be more sound, 
for it recognizes the freedom of the will, and the 
power of man to control and modify the forces 
of nature. It also takes into consideration the 
original constitution of man, and the primitive 
type of nations. The Greeks belonged to the 
ag2;ressive Aryan race, and this fact largely ac- 
counts for their wonderful civilization. A true 



CULTURA. 279 

philosophy must also take into account soil, cli- 
mate, and other geographical conditions. Above 
all other things, we must remember that God 
has determined the times before appointed, and 
the bounds of the habitations of the nations. 
He determines the configuration of the earth's 
surface, and he controls the forces of nature. 
By his providence he directed the migrations of 
nations, and fixed the geographical bounds of 
their habitations. Nature and man came from 
the same cause; so that the earth and he who 
inhabits it are in harmony. The earth is not 
simply a dwelling place to meet the physical 
wants of man ; but it is also a school-house in 
which God is directing the education of the 
race. 

One of the most important events in the his- 
tory of the early Church was the preaching of 
Paul in the city of Athens. On his second Gen- 
tile tour he was called over into Macedonia to 
preach Christ to them. By persecution he was 
driven south, and he came to Athens, the metrop- 
olis of aucient Greece. For a number of days he 
was left alone in that magnificent but idolatrous 
city. Men were passing to and fro, but none to 



280 CULTURA. 

sympathize with the lonely wanderer. All per- 
sons who have traveled much know how de- 
pressing it is to be alone in a great city. The 
greater the number we meet, the more lonely we 
feel. Paul had one thing to encourage him 
which is above all others. He had the con- 
sciousness that he was there on an important 
mission, and that God was with him. The idol- 
atrous character of the city, instead of discour- 
aging him, only served to stir his spirit within 
him. The true soldier of the cross is animated 
for the conflict when he sees sin triumph in high 
places. We need more of the heroic spirit of 
Paul, so that we can control the evil tendencies 
of the age, instead of letting them control us. 
Paul finally got an opportunity to speak, and he 
stood on the Areopagus of Athens, where he was 
surrounded by statues, altars, and temples which 
Grecian artists had consecrated to pagan wor- 
ship. He had not come to the great city for 
pleasure, but to make known to the philosophers 
of Athens the unknown God, and Jesus Christ, 
his Son. He possessed truths which the wise 
had sought for ages, and stood upon a philo- 
sophic platform which towered far above the 



CULTURA. 281 

Acropolis of Athens. A Christian philosophy 
solves life's greatest problems for both men and 
women. 

ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 

The city of Athens was the center of Greek 
philosophy. Many of the philosophers were 
born at other places, but Athens was the great 
center from which their systems were promul- 
gated. As there is a dual element of race and 
of religion running through the history of the 
Greeks, so there is a similar dualism in their 
philosophy. One element has been denominated 
realism, and the other idealism. Thales, born 
six hundred years before Christ, one of the first 
of Greek philosophers, is considered the founder 
of the realistic school. Although a realist, he 
was not a materialist. The following language 
from the great philosopher is sufficient to estab- 
lish this fact : " Of all things, the oldest is God ; 
the most beautiful is the world ; the swiftest is 
thought ; the wisest is time. '^ " Death does not 
differ at all from life." This doctrine does not 
at all harmonize with modern materialism, 
which teaches that dej^th ends all. 



282 CULTURA. 

Pythagoras was the earliest and most con- 
spicuous philosopher of the realistic school. 
He was for a time a contemporary of Thales. 
Whatever may have been the pantheistic tend- 
ency of his system, it is certain that he be- 
lieved in the existence of an Infinite Being. 
He taught that God is one. The results of 
the schools of which we have spoken was a 
skeptical tendency, in which Gorgias and Pro- 
tagoras taught the theory of nescience. The 
result of this doctrine was the spirit of almost 
universal skepticism until the advent of the 
great Socrates. Plato, the disciple of Socrates, 
who really presents the doctrine of his great 
master, was the first to reconcile the realistic 
and idealistic tendencies. The school of real- 
ism recognized motion, multiplicity, variety, 
time and nature ; but it lost unity, substance, 
eternity and spirit. The idealistic school rec- 
ognized being, unity and eternity ; but lost 
time, variety, life and motion. Plato had unity 
and variety — the one in all, the divine in nature^ 
Having assumed God, he inferred nature and 
man. His was a divine philosophy, for he re- 
ferred all the great facts of the universe to God 



CULTURA. 283 

as the ground of their existence. In his style 
Plato combined analysis and synthesis, and, 
although his life was poetic, he was exact in 
his definitions. There can be no doubt about 
Plato^s belief in the existence of the one true 
God. Aristotle, the disciple of Plato, was the 
great natural philosopher of ancient times. He 
was a reversed Plato, but reached nearly the 
same religious conclusions that his master had 
reached. He taught that above all nature God 
is, who is permanent and unchangeable. The 
prevailing philosophies at Athens in the days 
of the apostles were stoicism and epicureanism. 
The Stoics pushed theism into pantheism, and 
the Epicureans pushed realism into materialism. 
We do not doubt the fact that Greek philoso- 
phy was a preparation for Christianity; but it 
had accomplished its mission when Paul preached 
in the city of Athens. As the various religions 
of the world had spent their force and become 
corrupt, the same thing can be said of philoso- 
phy. Stoicism was indifferentism, and epicu- 
reanism was materialism and atheism. The 
Stoics were indifferent to, and the epicureans 
mocked at, the sublime truths of the gospel. 



284 CULTURA. 

ATHENIAN ART AND RELIGION. 

The two great poets, Homer and Hesiod, 
created the Greek theology and worship. The 
writings^ of Homer really constitute the Greek 
Bible. The gods of Homer are intensely 
human; and the Greeks worshiped humanity. 
They believed in the divinity of human nature, 
and clothed it with celestial grandeur. The 
Greeks were a nation of poets, and their myth- 
ology was largely poetry. They were poets 
in the truest sense of the word, not only in 
writing verses, but in looking at nature als6 
from the poetic standpoint. They tried to har- 
monize and vitalize nature, and their mythol- 
ogy was naturalistic. It dwells upon nature, 
and upon the facts and fictions of life. 

Homer does not give his gods even dignity, 
much less divinity. On Olympus they feast, 
talk, make love, war, and deceive one another. 
On nectar and ambrosia they feed, and thus 
become immortal, just as Amrita makes im- 
mortal the Hindoo gods. The gods in the 
summer would feast all day beneath the open 
sky, and go home at night like so many young 



CULTURA. 285 

men and women. They were thought im- 
mortal, and could move through the air like 
birds; yet they could not prevent the death 
of even one of their favorites. The second 
book of Homer^s Iliad begins thus, and it gives 
us a proper conception of the supreme divinity 
among the Greeks: "The rest, both gods and 
horse-arraying men, slept all the night ; but 
Jove sweet sleep possessed not ; but he pondered 
how he might destroy many of the Greek 
ships, and honor Achilles. But this advice ap- 
peared best to his mind, to send a fatal dream 
to Agamemnon. And he said. Haste, pernicious 
dream, to the swift ships, and bid Agamemnon 
arm the Achaians to take wide-streeted Troy, 
since Juno has persuaded all the gods to do 
her will." This was a falsehood designed for 
the destruction of the Greeks. With all of its 
beauties, it is perfectly absurd to compare the 
religion of the Greeks with the Christianity of 
the Bible. 

The Greek temples were not built in caves, 
like those of the Hindoos ; but upon their emi- 
nences they plainly said that they belonged to 
the light. The Greek sculptor made Jove more 



286 CULTURA. 

of a mortal being than did the poet, and he 
became a more gracious and calm ruler. Their 
conception was more fully realized by the great 
Phidias than by any other artist. His text was 
taken from Homer, but the sermon went above 
it. It was his masterpiece, the statue of Jove, 
made of ivory and of gold for the temple at 
Olympia. It was there that the great games 
were celebrated by the united Hellenic race. 
These games commenced more than seven hun- 
dred years before Christ, and from them nearly 
all our knowledge of ancient chronology is de- 
rived. The Greek artist was feeling after God 
in man, and was preparing the way for the 
future development of humanity. 

THE GOSPEL IN ATHENS. 

The public worship of Athens consisted of 
sacrifices, prayers and public festivals. The 
sacrifices were to avert the anger of some of- 
fended deity, for the success of any enterprise, 
and for victories over enemies. In the earliest 
history of Greece only fruits and plants were 
offered, but aflerwards their sacrifices consisted 
of incense, libations and victims. On irapor- 



CULTURA. 287 

tant occasions great sacrifices were offered to 
different deities, as the hecatomb, which con- 
sisted of a hundred oxen. At the entrance of 
their temples there was a vessel of holy water 
with which the worshipers were sprinkled. 
The Eoman Catholics borrowed this custom 
from the Greeks, and they yet perpetuate it. 

The festivals of the Greeks were religious. 
They had one in November to Zeous, the god 
of storms ; and one in February to Zeus, the 
god of good weather. They had festivals in 
honor of almost everything — one in honor of 
the clothing of images, one in honor of women, 
one in honor of nurses, one in honor of the 
battle of Marathon, and one in honor of even 
the flood of Deucalion. The Greeks were the 
worshipers of many deities, and Paul was com- 
plimentary when he called them the devout 
worshipers of the gods. In their early history 
they had specially worshiped external nature ; 
but the poets, artists and philosophers deified 
humanity. Their conception of humanity was 
such as to prepare it for the abode of divinity. 

It was a highly interesting event when Paul 
stood on the Areopagus of Athens and pre- 



28^ CULTURA. 

sonted the one true God to the most intellectual 
polytheists in the world. As he contemplated 
the grand monuments around him, he must 
have thought of the devoted heroes and gen- 
iuses of Athens that had long passed from the 
earthly abode of man. Demosthenes and Socra- 
tes had occupied the same platform where he 
stood, and taught the Athenians the most ex- 
alted patriotism and the truest philosophy. 

From the fragments we have in the Book 
of Acts, Paul's discourse at Athens must have 
been very eloquent, and it was perfectly adapted 
to the occasion. He introduced himsolf to the 
men of Athens precisely as their orators had 
been accustomed to address them. In his wan- 
derings through the city he had found an altar 
with an inscription To The Unknown God; and 
he selected this for a text from whicli to explain 
to his auditors the true character of the God 
unknown to them, but known and worshiped 
by him. The God whom he worshiped was 
the creator of all things — the maker of man, 
and the daily sustainer of his life. After mak- 
ing known to them the Fatherhood of God, 
he proclaimed also the universal brotherhood 



CULTURA. 289 

of man. The Greeks believed that they had 
sprung from the soil where they bad lived, 
and that other nations were^unworthy of their 
notice. PauPs teaching took this conceit out 
of them, and showed God's providential care 
over all nations. The nation as well as the 
individual is responsible to God; and no nation 
can prosper which does not reverence the 
Supreme Being. After presenting to them a 
proper conception of the true God, and their 
relationship ta other nations, the apostle was 
prepared to preach the gospel to them. They 
were quite patient until he came to the resur- 
rection, and then the Epicureans mocked, and 
the indifferent Stoics went away, promising that 
they would hear him again. 

The religion which makes man the child of 
God comes in contact with the religion which 
made the gods the offspring of men. The hu- 
manitarianism of the Greeks faded away before 
that religion which makes God man's Father, 
and the Son of God man's Brother. Greek 
polytheism leveled religion to the low standard 
of humanity ; but Christian monotheism eleva- 
ted man to the high standard of divinity. In 



290 CULTURA. 

other words, the Athenians degraded religion, 
while the Christians elevated humanity. This 
was the religion for man; and many of the 
Greeks heard the voice of the true shepherd, 
and followed him. In the providence of God, 
they had done their part of the work in pre- 
paring the world for the Christian religion. 
The human character of their gods prepared 
their minds for that religion which presents 
God manifested in the flesh. Their philoso- 
phers had made them skeptical of their poly- 
theism, but had no religion to substitute in its 
place. Abstract philosophy can never take the 
place of religion. While philosophy looks in, 
religion looks up. While philosophy is thought, 
religion is life as well as thought. Christianity 
is adapted to humanity ; for in Christ was life, 
and this life was the light of men. 



^^"U '^£>hizb. 



©HE f?I6HBSiP (SULiDUI^B AND THE 
BiBIiE. 



PART THIRD. 

THE HIGHEST CULTURE AND THE 
BIBLE. 



(Shaptbi^ I. 

The Highest Scientific Cultuke and 
THE Bible. 

The word culture is from the Latin cultural 
and it denotes the cultivation of all the faculties 
of the mind, not merely the cultivation of the 
intellectual faculties. It means about the same 
thing that the Germans mean in the use of the 
word " bildung.'' It may be somewhat exotic 
in our language, and not native to the soil ; but 
it is the best we can do. In our view of the 
subject there can be no true culture without the 
unfolding of all the faculties of the human mind. 
Religion is a part of true culture, and no man 
can reach the highest culture who has not devel- 
oped the moral and religious elements in his 
nature. Christianity not only harmonizes with 

293 



294 CULTURA. 

the highest culture, but it really comprehends 
such culture. (1) Because it is the culture 
of the highest elements of man's nature. (2) 
It recognizes the importance of the complete 
development of man, body, soul, and spirit. 
When men boast of their intellectual powers, 
and despise religion, they simply show their own 
one-sided education, and ignorance of what true 
culture really means. What happiness can a 
man find in any pursuit without the high ideals 
of life given by Christianity ? What inspiration 
we indeed receive when we fully appreciate these 
beautiful sayings of Jesus : " Seek first the king- 
dom of God and his righteousness." " Be ye 
perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." 

SECTION I. — THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND THE 
BIBLE. 

Many Bible students as well as scientists have 
thought that if it could be shown that Adam 
was not the first man, and that there were really 
pre- Adamites, the Bible account of creation 
would have to be given up. While I do not 
think that this position has been proven, or even 
can be, I have tried to study the Bible on the 



CTJLTURA. 295 

supposition that it has been done. If this po- 
sition could be shown to be true it would not 
interfere with the truth of the Bible. In the 
brief account of creation given in Genesis, the 
ancestors of Christ may alone be mentioned. In 
two short poetic chapters it is not to be sup- 
posed that the writer would necessarily dwell 
upon all the races of mankind. While I have 
not been able to find sufficitnt evidence of pre- 
Adamites, I can see no reason why the Bible 
should be given up even if this should some day 
be done. Prof Winchell is a firm believer in 
the Bible, and has written a book advocating the 
doctrine of pre- Adamites. We should not be 
afraid of the truth wherever it may be found, 
and I am fully satisfied that God's book will 
harmonize with all truth. 

It is a well established fact that the Bible was 
given to man for a perfect ethical guide. It 
was not given for the special purpose of teach- 
ing natural science, and if its allusions to nature 
are not in harmony with modern science, even 
this would not destroy its inspiration for the ex- 
press purpose for which it was given. God has 
to reveal himself to man in the language of 



296 CULTTJBA; 

man, and all illustrations from nature or other- 
wise would have to be. such that the people could 
understand them. If the language of modern 
science had been used in the Bible, the people 
could not have understood it. Besides, theories 
in science are constantly changing, and the 
Bible would have to contain the last theory that 
would ever be presented to the world. While I 
believe that the Bible fully harmonizes with all 
scientific truth, and has in many things antici- 
pated modern science, still I can see no reason 
why we should give up the Bible as an ethical 
guide, even if its illustrations from nature do 
not harmonize with modern science. Prof 
Ladd, of Yale University, is a believer in the 
Bible, and he does not claim that it harmonizes 
with modern science. 

I am, however, fully satisfied that when the 
Bible is correctly interpreted it harmonizes with 
all the established facts of modern science. It 
is not, of course, to be supposed that the Bible 
uses the exact language of science. Even scien- 
tific men themselves do not do so. They speak 
of sunrise and sunset just as did the Biblical 
writers. It would be thought very strange to 



CULTURA. 297 

hear even an astronomer speak of sunrise in the 
following language : '* The earth has so revolved 
upon its axis that the illuminated ray has been 
brought upon the earth's surface at the longitude 
and latitude of the observatory at Greenwich.^' 
It is not difficult to see the impropriety in the 
scientific reply of a young lady graduate who 
was asked if she would have a second piece of 
meat. Her reply was : " Gastronomic satiety ad- 
monishes me that T have arrived at a state of 
deglutition consistent with dietetic integrity." 
How much better it would have been for her to 
have simply said in the language of the people, 
" I have eaten enough." How ridiculous it 
would be to substitute the following scientific 
language for " I suddenly fell " : ^' My perpen- 
dicularity suddenly became a horizontality." 
Before we object to the beautiful and inspiring 
language of the Bible, let us be certain that we 
can use the language of science even in every 
day life. It is a noteworthy fact that some of 
the greatest scientists in the world are objecting 
to the intricate terminology of modern science, 
and are trying to place their thoughts in the 
language of the common people. 



298 CULTUKA. 

It is claimed that the Bible does not scientif- 
ically classify its facts. Do we not find fully as 
much confusion in the system of nature. Take, 
for example, the science of geology, and consider 
how long it was before geologists were able to 
reach anything like correct classification. It 
was by the patient labors of Lyell, Miller, 
Hitchcock, Dana, and others, that the wonderful 
order and arrangement of geological history has 
been accomplished. The same thing is true in 
the study of the Bible. Our knowledge of this 
wonderful book is limited, and we sometimes 
think we find confusion and contradiction. 
When, however, we fully understand it, all is 
light and harmony. We can read the char- 
acter of a man in his works ; so in the study of 
the Bible and in the study of nature we have 
evidence that both volumes are the products of 
the same divine hand. When you first open the 
Bible it is like looking upon Colorado, or S(»me 
other great natural park: all seems confusion; 
but when you properly understand it, all is 
order, and you are impressed with the greatness 
of its Author. Persons have frequently thought 
that they found a contradiction between the 



CULTURA. 299 

Bible and science, but when they understood 
the Bible they found that it had anticipated 
science. When our English translation was 
made, the belief of the times caused the Hebrew 
word rakiah to be translated into Greek by the 
word stereomay and into Latin by the word Jirma- 
menturriy from which our word firmament is de- 
rived. Skeptics seeing this word in the English 
Bible, declared that Moses meant by firmament 
a solid expanse. Such, however, is not a fact ; 
for if Moses had intended to express something 
solid he would have used either the word yathad 
or taraZf and not the word rakiah. The word 
rakiah means to spread out, and corresponds to 
the Latin expansus, which means an expanse. 
This certainly harmonizes with the teaching of 
modern science. There can be no question but 
that the Bible has clothed in its peculiar drapery 
many allusions to the laws of nature that ap- 
pear to be concealed until science causes them 
to burst out in striking beauty. Take, for exam- 
ple, what the ancients taught on those questions 
made plain by geology, and compare it with the 
teaching of the Bible, and this will be made 
plain. We learn from Plato that the Egyptians 



300 CULTURA. 

believed that the earth and heavens originated 
out of a kind of pulp, and that men came from 
the slime of the Nile. There were some in Egypt 
who thought that the world was hatched from a 
winged egg. While Moses was educated in all 
the learning of the Egyptians, we are grateful 
that he taught on the origin of things something 
very different from that taught by the sages of 
Egypt. The Chinese, Hindoos, and other an- 
cient nations held to theories fully as absurd 
as that taught by the Egyptians. Even Lucre- 
tius, who is quoted so frequently by modern 
scientists, taught that nature does all things 
spontaneously. Modern research has fully 
shown the absurdity of this position. Beale, 
Lotze, Helmholtz, Tyndall, and in fact all the 
great lights in the modern scientific world, have 
decided against the doctrine of spontaneous gen- 
eration. It is certain that dead matter can not 
produce life, and that life in this visible universe 
must have come from life in the invisible. The 
greatest thinkers in the scientific world have 
found perfect harmony between the Bible and 
science on the great question of the origin of 
things. Prof. Silliman, of Yale University, 



CULTUKA. 301 

says: "The relation of geology, as well as 
astronomy, to the Bible is that of perfect har- 
mony." 

There is no science which has undergone 
more radical changes from time to time than has 
medical science. Fifty years ago bleeding and 
other things were practiced by the medical pro- 
fession which are condemned at the present time. 
It is now taught that nature must restore the 
sick ; that the life is in the blood, and that it is 
not well to dispose of it. While the Bible was 
not given to teach medical science, its allusions 
to the sciences connected with medicine are 
always correct. While the physicians of the last 
century would laugh at the idea of improving 
their practice by studying the Bible, it is now 
quite certain that the Bible is right, and they are 
wrong. In harmony with the highest medical 
authority Moses says : " The life of the flesh is 
in the blood" (Lev. xvii. 11 ; Gen. ix. 4). The 
circulation of the blood was not understood until 
the great discovery by Harvey in 1616; yet we 
certainly have allusions to it in the Bible. In 
Prov. iv. 23, Solomon says : " Out of the heart 
are the issues of life." The medical profession 



302 CULTURA. 

recommends for the preservation of health free- 
dom from anxiety, temperance, rest — precisely 
the things taught in the Bible. From a medical 
standpoint alone there is profound meaning in 
the appointment of a special day of rest. 

The student of physical science will be able 
to find much that will lift him above the con- 
templation of simply material phenomena. As 
he contemplates the material world he will be 
impressed with the following facts: (1) There 
is a manifestation of power directed by intelli- 
gence in the material universe. When we 
study the pyramids of Egypt we think of the 
great physical force that was required to build 
them. What are these compared with the 
Alps, the Andes, and other ponderous mountain 
ranges found on the surface of the earth ? If 
the pyramids teach power directed by thought 
in their construction, the Alps certainly do not 
teach anything less. (2) There are manifesta- 
tions of beneficence in the material universe. 
This we have tried to make plain in speaking 
of the law of adaptation in another pari of 
the work. We find everything in the material 
universe so perfectly adapted to the wants of 



CULTURA. 303 

man that we can not fail to see the beneficence 
of the Author of the system of nature. The 
system of nature constantly proclaims the be- 
neficence of the Author of the material universe 
in the wonderful provisions he has made for 
the welfare of that being made in his own 
image. (3) The material universe proclaims 
unity in the system of nature. We sometimes 
become confused in the study of variety in the 
natural world ; but the more carefully we study 
nature, the more we find this variety in perfect 
harmony with a wonderful unity. The classi- 
fication of plants and animals is based upon 
this unity. The solar system is a unit with 
the sun as the great center. Even what have 
been called the fixed stars are now thought to 
be in motion around a common center. The 
center of all is the intelligent Author of the 
whole system of nature. The Author of the 
Book of Nature and the God of the Bible is 
one Jehovah. 

The Book of Nature can not account for its 
own origin; and it must have come from the 
unseen universe, as have all the great truths 
of the Bible. The devotees of natural science 



304 CULTURA. 

have never been able to give any satisfactory 
account of the origin of man ; and it is probable 
that they never will. They may object to what 
the Bible says, but they can not solve the prob- 
lem. Nor have physical scientists been able to 
tell whether the races of mankind have sprung 
from one pair or from many. Anthropology 
and psychology may, however, throw light upon 
this subject by showing that the bodily and 
mental characteristics of all men indicate unity 
of species. They may also show that man is 
separated by a groat gulf from all other ani- 
mals, and forms a unit in himself. 

SECTION II. — PSYCHOLOGY AND THE BIBLE. 

Psychology is of Greek origin, and it denotes 
the science of the human soul. The German 
equivalent, jpsycholigie, has been in use more 
than two hundred years. It is now the most 
appropriate term to denote the soul of man as 
a whole, in contradistinction from a single class 
of its endowments. 

The human soul was one of the great themes 
of our Saviour's teaching, yet the most ad- 
vanced psychology of the present time has 



CULTURA. 305 

to confess great ignorance in reference to the 
nature and essence of the soul. The distinc- 
tion between spirit and matter has long been 
a great question with philosophers. The spirit- 
uality of the soul has, however, been recog- 
nized in all ages, and the common people have 
frequently been more correct on this subject 
than have the philosophers. Man is so con- 
stituted that he is able to know of the exist- 
ence of spirit by about the same process of 
reasoning that he knows of the existence of 
matter. It may be said that some philoso- 
phers have altogether denied the existence of 
spirit. That is true; but others equally as 
great have denied the existence of matter. 

A.t a time in the history of the world when 
the nations knew so little about the soul of 
man, Jesus came and emphasized its reality 
and true value. He did not prove its exist- 
ence by a labored process of reasoning, but 
assumed it to be a fact, and appealed to the 
consciences of his hearers to verify the truth 
of what he taught. He gave back to the world 
the divine original afler the corruption of sev- 
eral thousand years, and has impressed upon 



306 CTJLTURA. 

the world, as has no other teacher, the positive 
reality and intrinsic value of the spirit of man. 

The most advanced culture in the world 
teaches the positive importance of educating 
all the faculties of the soul; and that life, in 
fact, is a failure when this is neglected. The 
spirit of man is the highest element in his 
nature, and it should certainly be so educated 
as to make it the guiding star of his life. The 
body should be brought under the influence 
of the spirit. Jesus anticipated the highest 
culture, and taught that the whole world was 
valueless in comparison with the true value of 
the human soul. Man's life is a failure, even 
if he should succeed in gaining the whole world, 
in case it involves the loss of his soul. 

Without admitting the inspiration of the 
Bible we can not account for the fact that in 
all its references to the human mind it is cor- 
rect, while the writers who were contemporary 
with the Bible writers were wrong. Demo- 
critus, who was contemporary with the last of 
the prophets, taught that the substance of the 
human soul is fire. Pythagoras held to about 
the same position. Diogenes claimed that the 



CULTURA. 307 

spirit of man is derived from the atmosphere, 
which he thought was intelligent. Other phil- 
osophers thought that the thinking part of man 
comes from the stars. Some located the think- 
ing part of man in the blood, some in the heart, 
some between the eyes, and others thought that 
it dwelt in the abdomen. It may be claimed 
that these men were doing the best they could 
under the circumstances. We grant it, and are 
not disposed to harshly criticise them; but we 
are grateful that the Bible writers did not make 
any such mistakes. 

It may be said that the Jews were not a 
philosophical people, and did not dwell upon 
these themes; but that will not do, for their 
writings show otherwise. Moses recorded scien- 
tific facts thousands of years ahead of his age, 
and a very learned man declares that a school- 
boy can learn more about creation from his 
writings than all the philosophers of the world 
can learn in a thousand years without them. 
Solomon was a philosopher of the highest order, 
and his writings to this day would be a good 
text-book of moral philosophy. The writings 
of Paul show that he had the philosophical 



308 CULTURA. 

tendency, and he did not hesitate to encounter 
the learned men of Athens. His Epistle to the 
Komans is one of the most logical productions 
of any age, and its profound reasoning should 
be carefully studied by all students of the 
science of logic, as well as by those who are 
the special students of religious science. We 
have already given the reason why Moses and 
Paul did not make the mistakes made by non- 
biblical writers. 

All references in the Bible to the mind of 
man are found to be correct in the light of the 
highest modern psychology. The distinction 
between soul and spirit advocated by psycho- 
logical writers is clearly recognized in the Bible. 
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews de- 
clares that the word of God divides between 
the soul and spirit, and Paul prayed for the 
preservation of the body, soul and spirit until 
the coming of Christ. The faculties of the 
mind, such as memory, reflection, imagination 
and conscience, are clearly distinguished in the 
Bible. Whatever philosophers in the past may 
have taught in reference to the human will, 
the Bible harmonizes with the highest modern 



CULTURA. 309 

culture in teaching that the will is free. God^s 
revelation to man presupposes the fact that 
man is a free moral agent. 

SECTION III. SOCIOLOGY AND THE BIBLE. 

Sociology, which means a discourse about 
society, is rapidly becoming one of the most 
important of modern sciences. Among the 
ancients, individualism was largely sacrificed to 
the welfare of the state; but the science of 
sociology insists upon the elevation of the in- 
dividual. The state which does not protect 
and elevate the individual is a curse instead 
of a blessing. The teachings of the Bible all 
pertain to the welfare of society; and when 
this sacred book becomes the rule of faith and 
practice with any people, society is greatly ele- 
vated. There is no question about the success 
of any community which will strictly practice 
the teaching of the Bible. It would soon abol- 
ish all those evils which are so destructive to 
the welfare of society. It is an admitted fact 
that the best society that has ever been known 
was found in the early history of the Apostolic 
Church. If all professed Christians would 



310 CULTURA. 

teach by example and precept as did the early 
disciples, it would not be long until we could 
settle the social conflicts which threaten the 
very foundations of civil society. 

The Bible is the book which gives liberty 
to man, woman and child. Liberty not only 
means the right to live, but it also denotes 
freedom from external and^unjust restraint. It 
is man's normal state; but the history of the 
world shows that the majority of mankind has 
been subjected to the severest servitude. The 
pyramids of Egypt are monuments of despot- 
ism ; and even some of the greatest sages in 
Greece were slaves. When Rome was in the 
zenith of her glory she owned slaves from 
almost every nation; and her great civilization 
largely rested upon slavery as its basis. Ac- 
cording to Mr. Gibbon, at least one-half of the 
population of the great empire were slaves. 
Society reached the very brink of despair. The 
slaves were not considered persons, but only 
property, and their breasts were branded with 
hot irons. According to Plutarch, the Koman 
Flaminius put a slave to death in order to show 
a friend, who had never seen a man die, what 



CULTUEA. 311 

the agonies of death really were. Slaves were 
crucified by thousands in order that their cruel 
masters might enjoy their tortures. Those who 
are acquainted with modern history know what 
Christianity has done in the way of abolishing 
slavery. Liberty is certainly a central fact in 
the Christian system; and those who advocate 
liberty for man, woman and child must, in all 
consistency, accept the Christianity of the Bible. 
Women and children were slaves at the intro- 
duction of Christianity, but Christ has made 
them free. John Adams used to say that 
women were the infallible barometers to ascer- 
tain the morality of nations. When you com- 
pare Christian women with those of other na- 
tions, it is not difficult to see the great moral 
superiority of Christianity to all other systems. 
The Bible is the book of commerce. When 
a nation accepts the teachings of the Bible there 
are demands created which make its people a 
commercial people. As soon as an eastern 
nation accepts Christianity there is an immedi- 
ate demand for those things belonging to a 
higher civilization. The people seem contented 
with what they have before they become Chris- 



312 CULTURA. 

tians; but as soon as they accept Christianity 
they want sewing machines, watches, organs, 
and other things belonging to our Christian civ- 
ilization. There would be no demand for these 
things if an open Bible had not preceded them. 
For every dollar expended by a Christian nation 
for missionary work, that nation receives back 
more than ten dollars in trade from the people 
thus civilized. Christian missionaries from 
America largely civilized the Hawaiian islands. 
In a single year our republic receives in trade 
more than it cost to Christianize those islands. 
The Bible is certainly the book of commerce, 
for it pays its own way, and blesses all who ac- 
cept it. Prof. Agassiz says in reference to 
Christian missionaries : " We must look to them 
not a little for aid in our future efforts for the 
advancement of science.'^ The great scientist 
Silliman has this to say : " It would be impossi- 
ble for the historian of the islands of the Pacific 
to ignore the important contributions of mis- 
sionaries to the department of science." The 
Bible is the book of civilization. The great 
nations of antiquity have largely passed away. 
Even Rome, the " mistress of the world," is 



CULTURA. 313 

no more. It is true that the fleets of the world 
yet land on her coasts, but the great empire has 
fallen. Like other great nations, she perished 
because of vices within herself. There is a ten- 
dency on the part of man to deterioration ; and 
if there is not some means of counteracting this, 
any nation will go to ruin. We believe that the 
Bible is the true means of counteracting this 
downward tendency, and that no nation without 
the Bible can reach the highest civilization. 
While civilization is not a Scripture word, it is a 
Bible product, and every nation which reaches 
the highest civilization must be developed from 
an ideal from without. The Bible is the book 
which presents to the world the highest ideal. 
When an African prince inquired the cause of 
England^s greatness, the English queen simply 
sent him a Bible. Prof. Huxley says: "For 
three centuries this book has been woven into 
the life of all that is best and noblest in English 
history." At the memorable constitutional con- 
vention in Philadelphia in 1787, the philosopher 
Franklin, then eighty-one years of age, intro- 
duced a motion for daily prayers. He said : 
" In the beginning of the contest with Britain 



314 CULTURA. 

when we were sensible of danger, we had daily 
prayers in this room for divine protection. Our 
prayers, sir, were heard ; and we were graciously 
answered." The following words from the 
learned Prof.. Bo wen, of Harvard University, 
should be well pondered by all : " The time 
seems to have arrived for a more practical and 
immediate verification than the world has ever 
witnessed of the great truth, that the civilization 
which is not based upon Christianity is big with 
the elements of its own destruction." 

The Bible is the book which stimulates men 
to the adoption of the highest and purest form 
of civil government. That the science of law 
is largely built upon the Bible, no one will for a 
moment question. The names of Constantine 
and Justinian are sufficient to show that Chris- 
tianity must have had a great influence upon 
Roman law, and the laws of modern nations are 
largely derived from the laws of Rome. Black- 
stone, Story, and Kent highly eulogize the Bible 
in its relationship to modern law. We are, then, 
greatly indebted to the Bible for our free insti- 
tutions. The twelve united states of Israel 
formed the first great republic the world has 



CULTURA. 315 

ever known. The early history of America 
shows plainly how greatly indebted are the 
American people to the Bible for the Constitu- 
tion and principles underlying our free institu- 
tions, which have made the American republic 
represent the highest civilization of the world. 
Rufus Choate said to a friend who found in his 
library seven editions of the New Testament, and 
no copy of the Constitutio n : " Ah, my friend, 
you forget that the constitution of my country 
is in them all." Daniel Webster, in his Bunker 
Hill oration, says in reference to the Pilgrim 
Fathers : " The Bible came with them. And it 
is not to be doubted that to the free and uni- 
versal reading of the Bible is to be ascribed in 
that age that men were indebted for right views 
of civil government." John Adams was cer- 
tainly correct when he declared to Thomas Jef- 
ferson that the Bible is the best book in the 
world. 

The labor question seems to be the great social 
problem of the present age. There is a deadly 
conflict going on between labor and capital 
which greatly endangers the progress of civiliza- 
tion. It is undoubtedly an unnatural conflict, 



316 CULTURA. 

but appears to be growing in intensity from day 
to day. As capital is the fruit of labor, this 
conflict appears to be somewhat like a conflict 
between a tree and its fruit. I am fully satisfied 
that the Bible is the only book in the world 
which solves this problem. 

The laborer first appears upon the pages of 
history as a serf. He was bound to his master, 
and the master had to provide for him shelter, 
food and clothing. He was then provided for 
better than are many laborers at the present 
time. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 
were the golden ages of labor. The great 
plague in Europe caused labor to command high 
prices, and theflaborer was happy and prosperous. 
It was from the survivors of the good old times 
that Shakespeare drew his faithful Adam in " As 
You Like It,'^ and his grave diggers in " Ham- 
let." From the sixteenth to the nineteenth centu- 
ry the laborer was completely crushed by oppres- 
sive laws. He has only been free about fifty years, 
and during that time he has made rapid progress. 

The laborer himself can do much to solve 
the great social problem which is agitating all 
classes. In the first place, he shoald recognize 



CULTITRA. 317 

the fact that he must work. If he will study 
his Bible he will have no difficulty in under- 
standing this. God has ordained that man must 
work, and we can not get rid of this ordinance. 
Let all men stop work, and the race will starve 
in less than two years. Men must work, but 
life should not be constant toil. I like this 
division of time quite well : eight hours for 
work, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours to 
attend to the wants of others. 

When I was a student I remember how a 
learned professor deplored the fact that machin- 
ery was robbing the laborer. I then thought 
the professor was right, but am now convinced 
that he was mistaken. Machinery is a blessing 
to the laborer as well as to others. It takes 
burdens off of him, directs his energies in other 
channels, and benefits him in many ways. The 
laborer to succeed must be economical. Charles 
Dickens has discussed this question in his favor- 
ite book. I have never been an admirer of 
David Copperfield's friend, Wilkms Micawber. 
He would not pay his debts, and I do not like a 
dishonest man. He lived at a time when men 
were put in jail for debt ; but Mrs. Micawber 



318 CULTUEA. 

would meet the constable at the door, and polite- 
ly inform him that Mr. Micawber was not at 
" hime/' When the officer was gone, Micawber 
would make his appearance, and feel that the 
debt was fully discharged. He would also pay 
a debt by giving his note, and sign his name as 
boldly as John Hancock signed the Declaration 
of Independence. Micawber finally went to 
Australia, and some say that he came to America 
and started the Greenback party. I do not 
know how that is, but I do know that Micawber 
had good thoughts on finance. He used to say 
to his friend : " David, given an income of 
twenty pounds and an outgo of nineteen pounds 
and sixpence, and the result is happiness; but 
given an income of twenty pounds and an an- 
nual expense of twenty pounds and sixpence, 
and the result is misery." 

The laborer is apt to envy his wealthy neigh- 
bor who has a fine house and is able to spend 
his thousands every "year. The laborer is wrong 
in this ; for the more money expended by the 
rich, the better it is for the laboring man. The 
laborer will frequently praise the old miser who 
does not dress any better than himself, and con- 



CULTURA. 319 

sider this man his friend; but he is mistaken, 
for the miser takes from society without giving 
any return. He is a parasite, and takes out the 
very life of society. The money he hoards up 
might be going about doing good. 

If a man wants to succeed in the battles of 
life, he must be a Christian gentleman, and not a 
debauchee or spendthrift. If a man who makes 
fifty dollars per month saves ten of it, he is on 
the road to happiness ; but if he spends one- 
third of his earnings for whisky, he is on the 
road to pauperism. Intemperance is one of the 
principal causes of pauperism in this country, 
and it is the laboring man's greatest curse. 

The capitalist must do his part in solving the 
great social problem. God will certainly hold 
him responsible for all the talents he has given 
him. Wealthy men are beginning to see that they 
owe certain duties to society as well as to their 
own families. Two young men were seen plac- 
ing flowers on Peter Cooper's grave. They 
were asked if they were related to him, and an- 
swered no ; but stated that they were indebted 
to him for their education. This was a lovely 
sight ; young men placing flowers on their bene- 



320 CULTURA* 

factor's grave. What greater monument could 
he have left to his memory than he has done 
in building Cooper Institute? If a man simply 
gathers together property for his children, the 
children will scatter it as rapidly as he gathered 
it. Property not only changes hands, but it 
also changes families every two or three gener- 
ations. God's law is use or lose, and the cap- 
italist can not escape this law. 

In some large establishments they are never 
troubled with strikes, although they work hun- 
dreds of hands. They practice what is called 
profit-sharing. When the business is prosper- 
ous, all the workers are permitted to share in the 
prosperity. What each one has contributed to 
the prosperity of the business he reaps when 
the time of distribution comes. The laborer is 
greatly elevated by profit-sharing and codpera- 
tion. He does his work better, and all parties 
are benefited by the privileges extended to him. 
Labor may be a commodity, but the laborer 
himself is a man, and should be treated as a 
brother. The capitalist will be greatly benefited 
by the elevation of the laboring classes. They 
will be more honest, more skillful, and give 



CULTURA. 321 

much greater satisfaction in their work. It will 
be well for the capitalist to see this, for men are 
greatly influenced by self-interest. Great cattle 
owners on the western plains could not be dis- 
suaded from branding their cattle on the ground 
of cruelty ; but when they were told that their 
hides were less valuable, the custom was soon 
abandoned. 

The example of the Baltimore and Ohio E. E. 
Compauy is worthy of all commendation. They 
have a Relief Association, which gives all its 
members support in case of sickness or inability 
to work. In case of death, the children of the 
deceased are educated by the Association. They 
are the first to find employment with the com- 
pany, and the treatment of this company 
towards its employes has had a very beneficial 
influence upon them. The Baltimore and Ohio 
R. R. Company has consequently been one of 
the most prosperous corporations in America. 
If the capitalist wants a reign of terror, such as 
the French had, all he has to do to bring it 
about is to continue to ignore the personality of 
the laboring man in the great economical con- 
flicts of society. 



322 CULTURA. 

The government, which is an instrument in 
the hands of society, has its part to do in solv- 
ing the labor problem. Some claim that the 
government ought to limit individual wealth; 
but this would be like the tyrant of Attica, 
who cut off the feet of all captives if they 
were too long for his iron bedstead. All the 
wealth of the world is in nature and in the 
1 uman muscle and brain. It would not be in 
harmony with nature's laws to put an iron band 
around the head to limit brain capacity. While 
the government has not the right to interfere 
with individual liberty, it does have the right 
to limit the privileges of great corporations, 
and even abolish them if they interfere with 
the general welfare of society. It is thought 
by some, if the government owned all the land 
and railroads, labor would soon have a millen- 
nium. The conflict is not over the land, for 
the farmers themselves are arrayed against the 
vast accumulations of personal property. While 
the government should keep its homesteads for 
the people, and not let speculators get hold of 
them, I can see no benefit to the laborer grow- 
ing out of the ownership of all the land by the 



CULTURA. 323 

government. Bismarck is in favor of the gov- 
ernments owning all railroads; and that is 
certainly well for a military empire like the 
German, and it also might be of great benefit 
in this country. The government should at 
least always keep its eye upon these great cor- 
porations. 

The government should act as a mediator 
between labor and capital. In France they 
have councils in all the great centers of com- 
merce, and they have succeeded in settling 
nearly all the labor troubles in that country. 
What the people need everywhere is greater 
respect for government, for they can not get 
along without it. A man may argue against 
the human skin, because it sometimes has itch 
and other troubles that have been handed down 
from generation to generation; but he can not 
get along without the human skin. Let it be 
taken from the body, and he will die. So with 
the body politic : it can not get along without 
civil government. Civil government is of di- 
vine origin, and we should serve God in the 
State as well as in the Church. The Bible 
teaches our duty to the State as well as all 



324 CULTURA. 

other duties; and if all will follow iU divine 
guidance, there will be no trouble in unifying 
society. 



©HAPJTBI^ II. 

The Highest Philosophic Culture and 
THE Bible. 

The word philosophy is derived from the 
Greek philosophia, which means a love of 
wisdom. *^ Philosophy," says Morell, *Ms the 
science of first principles, that, namely, which 
investigates the primary grounds and deter- 
mines the fundamental certainty of human 
knowledge generally." Pythagoras was the 
first to use the term philosopher. Previous 
investigators were called sophists, which simply 
means wise men. 

section I. ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY AND THE 
BIBLE. 

It is said that the Jews were never a philo- 
sophical people. There is but one Jewish name 
in the history of philosophy — Spinoza, an apos- 
tate Jew of Amsterdam. It must, however, be 
admitted that Moses, the Hebrew lawgiver 
and historian, was in the highest sense a philos- 

325 



S26 CULTURA. 

opher, for he solved the problem of creation 
which has agitated the minds of philosophers 
in all ages of the world. 

Egyptian philosophy and religion were a unit. 
The Egyptians discriminated between the body 
and the spirit, and they were strong believers 
in the immortality of the soul. Moses was 
educated in the esoteric school of Egypt, and 
this was doubtless a reason for his being selected 
as the leader, the lawgiver, and the historian 
of Israel. 

We do not possess much knowledge of Chal- 
dea, the Mesopotamia of the Bible, lying be- 
tween the Tigris and the Euphrates. While 
their religion was degrading, we have evidence 
of their progress in science and philosophy. 
They had a class of wise men called magi, on 
account of their scientific and philosophic at- 
tainments. The influence of the Bible writers 
upon these nations during the captivity was cer- 
tainly very great. In fact, the Jewish religion 
must have been largely disseminated through 
the East during the seventy years' captivity. 

With the Greeks, philosophy and religion 
separated. Their philosophy to an extent in- 



CULTTJRA. 327 

fluenced their religion, and vice versa; but their 
philosophers largely lost their faith in the pop- 
ular religion, and the religionists were seldom 
philosophers. 

Thales was the first of the physicists. He 
was born at Miletus, 640 B. C. This school of 
philosophy principally concerned itself about 
the origin of the universe. What fundamental 
element is there in the universe from which 
all things have sprung ? Thales selected water 
as the beginning of things ; Anaximenes selected 
air, and Diogenes, of Appollonia, insisted that 
intelligence is the cause of all existence. Anax- 
imander, who may be called the first of the 
mathematicians, regarded number as the pro- 
ducer of all things. He was a friend and dis- 
ciple of Thales. The most illustrious of this 
school was, doubtless, Pythagoras, who was the 
first to use the term philosopher. His theory 
of astronomy has been adopted in modern times 
in the place of the Ptolemaic. 

A school of pantheists was founded in Greece 
about six hundred years before Christ, by Zeno- 
phanes. It is really suprising when we remem- 
ber that nearly all the tendencies in modern 



328 CULTURA. 

philosophy manifested themselves in the early- 
history of Greek thought. The failure in the 
different attempts to solve the problem of exist- 
ence gave rise to the Sophists, who were almost 
universally skeptics. 

Socrates was the first great mental and moral 
philosopher among the Greeks. He was born 
in Athens, 469 B. C. He devoted much of his 
time to the education of the young, and pro- 
duced a system of teaching which is yet known 
as the Socratic. He was very religious, and 
professed to be guided by a voice from the un- 
seen world. His philosophy was of a universal 
character, and he was especially a student of the 
human mind. The confounding of his philoso- 
phy with that of the Sophists was one of the 
principal causes of his condemnation and death. 

Plato, a disciple of Socrates, was one of the 
most distinguished speculative philosophers of 
ancient times. He was born 429 B. C. He 
traveled much, and made the very best use of 
his travels. There has been much discussion as 
to his real position in philosophy, and he has 
been claimed by both realists and idealists. His 
influence upon religious thought has been very 



CULTURA. 329 

great, even in modern times. I fully believe 
that his philosophy harmonized with Christian- 
ity, but I will discuss this subject in another 
chapter. Some of the disciples of Plato, how- 
ever, went to a great extreme. Origen, who 
was at the head of a school of divinity, was a 
Platonist, and he adopted a metaphorical meth- 
od of interpreting the Bible, which largely de- 
stroyed its meaning. Paul warned the Church 
against the extreme philosophical tendencies of 
his day. 

Aristotle was, probably, the master mind of 
ancient times. He was a disciple of Plato, but 
more of a natural scientist than was his master. 
He was the originator of logic, and that science 
has not made much improvement since his day. 
In a future chapter we will endeavor to show 
the harmony between his philosophy and Chris- 
tianity. 

Epicureanism and Stoicism were the prevail- 
ing philosophies at Athens in the days of Paul. 
These systems had been in existence for several 
centuries, but were especially prosperous about 
the time the great apostle visited Greece. The 
Epicureans were materialists ; they denied the 



330 CULTURA. 

doctrine of a resurrection and a future life. 
They mocked when Paul preached the doctrine 
of the resurrection on Mars' Hill. Stoicism was 
more favorable to Christianity^ but its tendency 
was pantheistic. Indifferentism seems to have 
been the great sin of which this school was 
especially guilty. When they heard Paul 
at Athens they went away indifferently, saying : 
" We will hear thee again of this matter." 

The Roman philosophers had received a Greek 
education, and nearly all of them belonged to 
Greek schools of philosophy. Seneca, the great 
Roman moralist, was a Stoic, and Lucretius 
was an Epicurean. Cicero, the great Roman 
orator, and, possibly, Rome's greatest philoso- 
pher, was an Eclectic. 

In scholasticism we have a union between 
philosophy and religion. Realism and idealism 
were discussed by men wearing sacerdotal robes. 
From the seventh century until the dawn of 
modern philosophy the philosophy of Aristotle 
was studied and perverted by the scholastics for 
the purpose of having a suitable weapon with 
which to defend the corruptions of an apostate 
church. An eminent writer thus speaks of the 



CULTUEA. 331 

system : " This contentious philosophy existing 
in the bosom of the Church for many centuries, 
clothed in the purple of spiritual supremacy, 
and giving the law of faith to the subject con- 
sciences of men, was a fruitful source of skepti- 
cism and infidelity." Cousin has shown, how- 
ever, that scholasticism had many good traits. 

SECTION II. MODEKN PHILOSOPHY AND CHEIS- 
TIANITY. 

We observe the same tendencies in modern 
philosophy to an extreme realism and an ex- 
treme idealism that we found in ancient philoso- 
phy. The first was fully developed in France, 
where it led to materialism and atheism. We 
find in the rationalism and pantheism of Ger- 
many the results of an extreme idealism. 

Franois Bacon, the celebrated Englishman, 
born in 1461, was the founder of modern induc- 
tion. While at Trinity College, Cambridge, 
he felt a contempt for the course of study pur- 
sued there, and utter dislike for the prevailing 
method. He advocated the experimental meth- 
od which his namesake, Roger Bacon, in the 
Opus Majus, had insisted upon before him. The 



332 CULTURA. 

merit of Francis Bacon lies principally in co^ 
ordinating into a compact system all the ele- 
ments of the inductive method. In his Novum 
Organum he has done much to advance experi- 
mental science. He advocated a separation be- 
tween science and religion ; yet he was not op- 
posed to religion. We will have more to say 
about him in another chapter. 

Hobbs, another great Englishman, is regarded 
as the founder of modern materialism. He ad- 
vocated Bacon's method of inquiry, and main- 
tained that all knowledge depends upon exper- 
ience. He was the author of the materialistic 
maxim : *' Nihil est intellectu quod, non priusfuerit 
insensu, '^ which has been falsely ascribed to John 
Locke. 

John Locke, called the wisest of Englishmen, 
was born in 1632. At the age of twenty he 
was sent to Oxford. That university has always 
been noted for its reverence for the past. It 
was not the proper place for such an original 
genius as was John Locke. He was not satis- 
fied there. The distinctive feature of his philos- 
ophy consists in an effort to disprove the innate- 
ness of all ideas, and to show that there can be 



CTJLTURA. 333 

no knowledge which depends not upon exper- 
ience. D'Alembert says : " Locke created the 
science of metaphysics in somewhat the same 
way as Newton created physics ". It is just to 
Locke to state that in reflection he included an 
internal sense whica depends not upon sensation. 
In Book lY. of his Essay on Human Under- 
standing he states : " It is plain to me that we 
have a more certain knowledge of the existence 
of God than of anything our senses have not 
imiDt^diately discovered to us. Nay, I presume 
I may say that we may more certainly know 
that there is a God, than that there is anything 
else without us '\ We will have more to say of 
Locke hereafter. 

David Hume, one of the most noted of the 
disciples of Locke, was born in Edinburgh, 
Scotland, in 1711. He carried the empiricism 
of Locke directly into skepticism. His philos- 
ophy reached the extreme of denying the exist- 
ence of both matter and mind. 
/ Condi 1 lac, a Frenchman, born in 1715, car- 

ried the philosophy of Locke to the continent. 
He was an enthusiastic naturalist and sensation- 
alist, and he did much to impress a materialistic 



334 CULTURA. 

philosophy upon the French nation. He was 
the pioneer of materialism and atheism. 

Helvetius exhibited the moral consequences 
of the sensualistic philosophy. He was born 
in Paris, 1715, and at an early age devoted his 
special attention to the study of philosophy. 
Self-love, he insisted, is the foundation of all 
our mental actions. The most famous actor of 
this period was Voltaire. He was a materialist, 
but not an atheist. He says : " If there was 
not a God, we would be under the necessity of 
making one'\ His powers were all directed 
against revealed religion. Rousseau was a 
French skeptic, but he was much opposed to 
the materialism and atheism of his day. He 
deprecated the condition of affairs in his native 
country, and longed for a better state of things. 
He did much to better the condition of the la- 
boring classes. Rousseau was in sympathy with 
the idealism of Germany. 

The encyclopedists forced their materialism 
into the most stubborn atheism. Lametrie, who 
flourished from 1709 to 1751, spoke the last 
word with the greatest recklessness. He de- 
clared immortality to be an absurdity, and that 



CULTURA. 335 

the soul perishes with the body of which it 
forms a part. These materialists reached the 
grossest form of infidelity — atheism. Atheism 
caused the reign of terror in France, which 
bathed that country in blood. The Convention, 
which opposed all religion, was compelled, for 
the good of the country, to adopt a religion — 
though a corrupt form — in preference to 
atheism. 

France has taught us that a government 
thoroughly atheistic can not subsist. A union 
between church and state impedes the progress 
of civilization, for it corrupts religion ; but the 
people of a country must be religious in order 
to promote the prosperity of that country. The 
Scotc h philosophy endeavored to stay the tide of 
infidelity by advocating a ^^ philosophy of com- 
mon sense ^\ in opposition to the extreme ten- 
dencies of their age. Thomas Reid, the author 
of the Philosophy of Common Sense, was born 
1710, and educated at Aberdeen. In 1752 he 
occupied the chair of moral philosophy at 
Kings College. His Inquiries into the Human 
Mind on the Principles of Common Sense 
met with such approbation by his countrymen 



9 



336 CULTUEA. 

that he was called to the chair of moral philos- 
ophy at Glasgow. 

Sir William Hamilton, the greatest of Scotch 
philosophers, was born in Glasgow in 1788, and 
died in Edinburgh in 1856. He was the noted 
professor of logic and metaphysics in the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh. He accepted conscious- 
ness as an infallible witness, and his erudition 
manifested in the defense of his position aston- 
ished the world. Sir William insisted that there 
is a moral universe, known to us through our 
moral nature, which implies a moral order and 
moral governor of all. 

Descartes, tlie great Frenchman, born in 1596, 
was the founder of modern deduction. He was 
educated by Jesuits in the college of La Fleche, 
and took great interest in his studies, especially 
in mathematics. He did not lay a plan, as did 
Bicon, by which others could build up the 
structure, but he proposed to do the work him- 
self Bacon invented a method, but Decartes 
erected a system. I think ; therefore T am {cngito 
ergo sum), is the first principle with which he 
starts. My existence is involved in my think- 
ing. As I the thinker exist, there must be an 



CULTURA. 337 

original thinker, and that thinker is God. The 
philosophy of Descartes is idealistic ; it teaches 
innate ideas, and maintains that the idea of God 
is native to the human mind. 

C Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in 1632^ 

and he was a disciple of Descartes. He was a 
Jew, but forsook Judaism without becoming a 
Christian. Spinoza has been compared to a 
blank leaf of paper, which in most editions of 
the Bible separates the Old Testament from the 
New. He was indebted to Descartes for the 
foundation of his system, as he started with the 
Cartesian conception of substance, which advo- 
cates its independent existence. With this con- 
ception Spinoza insisted that there could be but 
one substance, and this he called God. He did 
not believe in a personal God, but embraced the 
doctrine of pantheism, which resolves every- 
thing into God. 

/, Leibnitz was born in Leipsic in 1646, and 
died in Hanover in 1716. He was a great gen- 
ius, and left his mark upon everything about 
which he wrote. Leibnitz rejected empiricism, 
and advocated the existence of innate ideas. 
While his system may have tended somewhat to 



338 CULTURA. 

rationalism, he did not go to that extreme which 
was reached by many of his successors. 

Immanuel Kant, the greatest of German 
philosophers, was born in Prussia in 1724, and 
died in 1804 at the advanced age of eighty. 
He separated religion from reason by excluding 
all religious questions from his " Critique of 
Pure Reason. ^^ These he includes in his " Crit- 
ique of Practical Reason. ^^ Kant does not re- 
ject religion, but thinks it necessary in order to 
sustain morality among the people. The poet 
Schiller was one of his earnest disciples. Of 
this you can see evidence in all of his writings. 
We will have more to say of the Kantian phil- 
osophy hereafter. 

The successors of Kant pushed idealism to a 
great extreme. Fichte was one of the most 
extreme of idealistic philosophers. Schelling es- 
pecially represented the philosophy of the abso- 
lute among the Germans. He revived the 
pantheism of Spinoza, and reached in his specula- 
tions the essential position of the extreme mater- 
ialists among the French. He reduces God to a 
machine, and virtually denies his existence. 
The writings of Goethe were much influenced by 



CULTURA. 339 

his philosophy. Hegel opposed the Kantian 
philosophy in separating religion from reason, 
and also Schleiermacher, who taught that the 
essence of religion is in feeling ; and he insisted 
that reason should search for divine things and 
for God. Feelings might do for the lower 
classes, but not for philosophers. The right 
wing of the Hegelian philosophy, represented 
by the disciples of Schleiermacher, thought 
Hegel quite orthodox, and that his position 
would mediate between rationalism and super- 
naturalism. The left wing, however, rep- 
resented by such men as Strauss, went into 
the most extreme transcendentalism and ration- 
alism. Strauss, in his " Leben Jesu '*, regards 
the gospel as the product of a pious, practical 
fancy. 

Schleiermacher, Neander, Tholuck, Lotze 
and others have greatly counteracted the in- 
fluence of an extreme rationalism in Germany. 
Under the influence of such men the religious 
professorships of the German universities have 
become crowded, while many of the rational- 
istic professors are left almost destitute of stu- 
dents. God's truth will triumph over all error. 



340 CULTURA. 

SECTION III. PHILOSOPHY THE MEDIATOR 
BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 

Q The physicists of the present time are far from 

'^ being true to the origiDal meaning of science. 

Science originally denoted knowledge ; but now 
there are many things called science that are 
mere speculations. Nature, when properly inter- 
preted, always tells the truth ; but there are afloat 
in the world as many incorrect theories of science 
as there are untrue systems of religion. At the 
time of Jacobinism in France, that country was 
flooded with more than seventy geological theo- 
ries, all of which were supposed to contradict the 
Mosaic cosmogony. None of these theories have 
stood the tests of time, while Genesis is now read 
by more people than ever before, and its truth- 
fulness impresses the human mind more and more 
as civilization advances. There is nothing more 
uncertain in this world than the various theories 
based upon an effort to interpret nature. Every- 
thing is so uncertain that the text-books in science 
have to be changed every few years. 

There can be no conflict between the reason- 
ing part of man's nature and the religious part ; 



CULTURA. 341 

nor can there be any contradiction between God's 
will impressed upon nature and his will revealed 
in the Bible. The man who studies nothing 
except the physical sciences is apt to become one- 
sided, and conclude that there is no truth not in- 
cluded in his special department of study. The 
difficulty in his case is the fact that he is not re- 
ligious enough to form a correct judgment on re- 
ligious subjects. 

Man has in his nature a religious element, the 
development of which is just as scientific as the 
development of reason. As the Bible contains 
the truest and purest form of religion, it is better 
calculated to develop man's religious nature than 
is any other book. While we fully believe in the 
infallibility of the Bible, we are far from believ- 
ing in all the theories based upon it. The Bible 
has been abused in the hands of its friends, and 
some have endeavored to make it teach on scien- 
tific subjects exactly the opposite to what it real- 
ly teaches. Scientists have held the Bible re- 
sponsible for false theories which some have tried 
to deduce from it. In this way science and the 
Bible have been regarded by some as the anti- 
podes of each other. In order that man may 



342 CULTURA. 

properly judge of the true relationship of science 
and religion, it is not only necessary for him to 
study the Bible, but he must also study God's 
unwritten word. 

The true mediator between science and religion 
I believe to be philosophy. For about three 
centuries the world has been agitated by an un- 
natural strife between the scientific and religious 
classes. Many battles have been fought, and 
much learning expended ; but the longer the war 
continues, the more hostile the parties become. 
Several positions have been developed with re- 
gard to the reconciliation between science and 
religion. There are extremists, who believe a 
reconciliation impossible ; another class, called 
indifferentists, care nothing about the subject; 
the skeptics are opposed to it. It now remains 
for the true philosopher to go to work in earnest 
in order to unite that which should never have 
been separated. 

The objector states that philosophy has also 
had extreme tendencies. The history of both 
ancient and modern philosophy verifies the truth 
of this statement. It appears that the philosophi- 
cal tendencies in both ancient and modern times 



CULTURA. 343 

have been very much the same. The tendencies 
were either to an extreme realism or an extreme 
idealism. These tendencies, however, were not 
so much in the masters as in their disciples. 
There is no difficulty in harmonizing the Socratic, 
the Platonic and the Aristotelian philosophies 
with Christianity. We find the truth in the 
golden mean between extremes, and the masters 
have usually avoided the extremes. It appears 
to me that Eclecticism presents the true spirit of 
philosophy. We should accept the truth con- 
tained in all the systems, and as rapidly as possi- 
ble unify it. We should avoid both the extremes 
of nescience and omniscience, and study with the 
true philosophic spirit both God's written and 
unwritten word, and find the true harmony which 
exists between them. 



(©HAPTBI^ III. 

The Highest Historic Culture and the 
Bible. 

section i. the old testament. 

With the exception of a few brief passages in 
Chaldee, the Old Testament was written in the 
Hebrew language. It was once thought that the 
Hebrew was the primeval language of the race ; 
but it is now generally conceded by philologists 
that it was only one branch of the great Semitic 
"family of languages, although one of the very 
oldest. In fact, it is thought that it conforms 
more nearly to the original stem than does any 
other language. It is well to state just here that 
we can not absolutely prove that the Semitic 
family of languages was the oldest. 

The Old Testament contains all the extant 
literature produced during the period when the 
Hebrew language was spoken. The most prob- 
able meaning of the term Hebrew is " the op- 
pesite side/' in allusion to the emigration of 
Abraham from beyond the Euphrates. The 

344 



CULTUEA. 345 

Hebrew was probably tbe language of the Ca- 
naanites before Abraham went into the country, 
and his native language was doubtless Aramaic, 
an allied branch of the Hebrew. The Hebrew 
became the greatest of the Semitic languages, 
and was exactly adapted to the high purposes 
for which it was used. When the Old Testa- 
ment was completed, it ceased to be a living lan- 
guage, and thus God^s oracles were deposited in 
a language which could not change. 

The Old Testament history is more than two 
thousand years older than any other history in 
the world. When profane history became authen- 
tic, it substantiated the truth of the Bible narra- 
tive so far as it came in contact with it. While 
profane history proper can not tell us anything 
in reference to the early history of the race, there 
are traditions among the different nations which 
are of great value. The primeval innocence of 
our race, which is placed before us in Genesis, 
seems to be embodied in the traditions of the 
great nations of antiquity. These nations also 
have a tradition of the fall, and the introduction 
of sin into the world. The early invention of 
^rts recorded in Genesis, fourth chapter, is evj- 



346 CULTUEA. 

dently referred to in Greek tradition, which 
teaches that Prometheus not only stole fire from 
heaven, but taught men all the arts and orna- 
ments of life, especially the working in metals. 
The traditional accounts among the different 
nations of a great deluge have forced even 
skeptics to admit that Genesis, eighth chapter, de- 
scribes an actual deluge. The traditions of the 
different and widely scattered nations can not be 
accounted for upon any other hypothesis than the 
fact that the book of Genesis correctly describes 
the early history of mankind. 

The narrative of the deluge in the book of 
Genesis is followed by an account of the re- 
peopling of the earth by the descendants of Noah. 
One thing which especially strikes us here is the 
enumeration of the races of mankind under three 
heads — the sons of Japheth, the sons of Ham, and 
the sons of Shem. All students of ethnology 
must be interested in the tenth chapter of Gene- 
sis, for it is the most valuable document in exist- 
ence for those students devoted to that branch 
of study. It is a significant fact that modern 
ethnologists have classified mankind into three 
divisions, and speak of all races as either Semitic, 



CULTURA. 347 

Aryan, or Turanian. There is a remarkable 
agreement between the groups thrown together 
in the tenth chapter of Genesis and the conclu- 
sions reached by ethnological science from a con- 
sideration of the facts of physical type and human 
language. How the Bible has thus anticipated 
modern ethnological science can be explained by 
the Christian, but not by the infidel. 

The remarkable event connected with the dis- 
persion of mankind is not without its traditions. 
In Babylon, the great city of the land of Shinar, 
there is tradition illustrating the confusion of 
tongues and the dispersion of mankind. The 
tradition definitely states that they erected a 
lofty tower which is now called Babylon, intend- 
ing thereby to scale heaven. The tower was 
overturned, and cast to the ground. The name 
of the ruin is still called Babel ; because until 
this time all men had used the same speech, but 
now there was sent upon them a confusion of 
many and divers tongues. It is thought that the 
Greek myth of the war between the gods amd the 
giants, and the attempt of the laMer to scale 
heaven by piling one mountain upon another, 
refer to the same thing. 



348 CULTUEA. 

The Book of Genesis perfectly harmonizes 
with modern historical research in reference to 
the earliest civilizations. (1) Nimrod founded 
Babylon in the land of Shinar. He was a de- 
scendant of Cush, and modern historical research 
has shown that a Cushite kingdom was early 
established in Lower Babylonia. (2) Asshur, 
and possibly Nimrod, builded Nineveh. Babylon 
was older than Nineveh. Asshur and his people 
were driven out by the warlike subjects of Nim- 
rod, and went to build another city. It was long 
thought that the Babylonians and the Assyrians 
belonged to the same race ; but modern research 
has shown that they were of different races, and 
it thus fully confirms the Biblical account. Nim- 
rod was a descendant of Ham, and Asshur was 
a descendant of Shem. The language of the As- 
syrians was Semitic, while that of the Babylo- 
nians was Hamitic. (3) The twelfth chapter of 
Genesis fully attests the early civilization of 
Egypt. When Abraham went into that country, 
he found it under a settled form of government 
with a king called Pharaoh. It is an admitted 
fact that Egypt was the earliest of nations, and 
both the roctotus and the hieroglyphics testify to 



CULTtJRA. 349 

the fact that the king wore the title of Pharaoh. 
We have in profane history an illustration of the 
truth of Genesis xiv., which gives an account of 
the rescue of Lot, Abraham's nephew, from the 
hands of Chedor-laomer, king of Elam. The 
following points are clearly established from 
documents recently disinterred from Mesopota- 
mian mounds : (1) From the time of Nimrod to 
Abraham, the power of the East passed from 
the bauds of the Babylonians to their neighbors, 
the Elamites. (2) That the name of the king of 
of Elam in the days of Abraham was Chedor- 
laomer, who was the ravager of the West ; that, 
assisted by his vassal monarchs, he conquered 
the kings of the lower Jordan, and captured 
Lot, who was rescued by Abraham. It seems 
that almost every discovery among the ruins of 
the East throws light upon the Bible narrative, 
and confirms the truth of God's Book. 

The bondage of Israel in Egypt, and the ex- 
odus of the chosen people from the valley of the 
Nile to tlie land of Canaan, are well illustrated 
by profane historians. The principal facts in 
this part of sacred history are fully confirmed 
by Manetho, Chaeremon, Hecataeus and Tacitus 



350 CTJLTURA. 

From these historians it appears (1) that the 
Egyptians had a tradition of an exodus from 
their country of persons whom they regarded 
as unclean, and who killed their sacred animals ; 
(2) that they connected this exodus with the 
names of Joseph and Moses ; (3) that they made, 
Palestine, or southern Syria, the place where 
the unclean persons went ; (4) that they placed 
the event in the reign of a certain Amenophis, 
son of Rameses, and father of Sethos, who 
reigned towards the close of the eighteenth 
dynasty. 

The route of the Israelites from Egypt to Ca- 
naan, as given in the Bible and by modern ex- 
plorers, is in perfect harmony. Modern explor- 
ers of the Sinaitic Peninsula have been able to 
identify nearly all the camping places of the Is- 
raelites ; and have shown that Bible history is 
genuine and not mythical. The character of 
the country and distances from place to place 
exactly agree with the Bible narrative. The 
skeptics, who insist that so great a number 
could not have possibly subsisted so long in the 
wilderness, show perfect ignorance of the spirit 
of the Bible writers. The Bible narrative di- 



CULTURA. 351 

rectly teaches that God specially provided for 
their wants during their long journey. The 
very best critics claim that the country through 
which the Israelites journeyed was formerly bet- 
ter supplied with water and pasturage than it is 
at the present time. The Israelites evidently 
spread themselves widely over the peninsula 
during the forty years^ sojourn, and the oases of 
the desert would do much to supply them with 
the necessaries of life. When the natural means 
were not sufficient, we have evidence that God 
fed his people with bread from heaven. 

The history of the Israelites from their settle- 
ment in Canaan to the close of the Old Testa- 
ment history is not contradicted by profane his- 
torians, but it is in very many points strongly 
confirmed. Even the geography of Canaan, as 
incidentally given in Joshua, connected with the 
conquest, is found to be wonderfully correct. 
The book of Joshua, according to Ritter, the 
great geographer, has been subjected to the se- 
verest scrutiny, because its scenes mostly lie on 
the west of Jordan, which has been thoroughly 
explored. Not only its distinct regions, but 
even its valleys, mountains, and villages, have 



352 CULTURA. 

been pointed out with wonderful particularity. 
Ritter refers (1) to Joshua's second campaign 
in the south of Palestine (Josh xi. 16 and 15, 
21. Eitter shows that the divisions of the 
country into five parts, and the scene of that ex- 
pedition, rest upon a basis of geographical con- 
ditions which none but an eye witness could 
have described. (2) A similar illustration may 
be drawn from SauPs last and fatal battle on 
Gilboa. The scene of this battle lies mapped 
out on the face of the country as distinctly as 
if it had been fought during our own times. 

Profane historians confirm the Bible account 
of David's wars. (1) Nicolas of Damascus, the 
friend of Augustus Csesar, mentions the defeat 
of Hadadizer, king of Zobah, and the Syrians, 
by the Israelites under David. (2) Dius and Me- 
nander, Greek writers in the age of Alexander, 
mention Hiram, king of Tyre, as reigning at 
this time, and as having friendly relationships 
with David. 

Profane historians fully substantiate the Bible 
account of Solomon's reign. (1) The condition 
of the East was at that time favorable to the es- 
tablishment of a kingdom such as was that of 



CULTURA. 353 

Israel in the days of Solomon. The tribute 
paid by other nations was similar to that exacted 
by all oriental monarchies. (2j Joseplms re- 
ports PhoeQician historians as testifying to the 
friendly relations of Solomon with Hiram, of 
the great temple built in Jerusalem, of Solo- 
mon's marrying the daughter of Hiram, and of 
the skill of the Tyrian artists. (3) Eecent orien- 
tal discoveries fully confirm the Bible account of 
Solomon's wisdom and magnificence. 

The captivity of the Jews in Babylon is not 
left without historic illustration. By a some- 
what careful comparison of the Book of Daniel 
with profane history, I am free to state that the 
most scrutinizing skeptic will never be able to 
find any contradiction. The Chaldean histor- 
ian, Brosus, definitely states that Nebuchadnez- 
zar carried Jewish captives into Babylon, and 
planted colonies in various places of Babylonia. 
The peculiar customs of the Babylonians and 
Persians referred to in the book of Daniel are 
fully illustrated in the history of those nations. 
The Babylonians used fire in capital punishment, 
but the Persians would not defile that sacred ele- 
ment ; so we find the three Hebrew children 



354 CULTURA. 

thrown into a fiery furnace by the order of Neb- 
uchadnezzar, but Daniel, by Persian order, was 
cast into a den of lions. Those acquainted 
with the Persian religion can see reasons why 
Cyrus restored the Jews to their native land, 
and assisted them in rebuilding the temple at 
Jerusalem. 

The historic character of the Old Testament 
must impress itself upon the minds of all can- 
did students. 

The Jewish people were so situated that they 
came in contact with all the great historic na- 
tions of antiquity, so that the great facts of 
their history can be illustrated by profane his- 
tory. There never was a time before this when 
there was as much interest in sthdying the mon- 
uments of antiquity as at the present time, and 
there are constantly monuments being dug out 
of the earth which throw muoh light upon the 
pages of sacred history. The discovery of the 
Moabite Stone a few years ago is only one ex- 
ample of the progress going on in the East to 
more fully illustrate God's revelation to man in 
that grand book we call the Bible. 



CULTURA. 355 

SECTION II. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

At the introduction of Christianity, the 
Greek language was the universal language of 
the civilized world. By the conquests of Alex- 
ander this language was carried to all the great 
nations of the Orient. Of course this language 
was greatly modified from classic models by 
coming in contact with so many tongues : but it 
became better adapted to the purposes of a uni- 
versal language. At Alexandria, in Egypt, so 
many Jews spoke the Greek language that it be- 
came necessary to translate the Hebrew Bible 
into Greek, and thus originated what is called 
the Septuagint version of the Hebrew Script- 
ures. 

This exercised an influence upon the spo- 
ken language of the Jews somewhat similar 
to Luther^s translation upon the German lan- 
guage, and the common English version upon 
our own mother tongue. 

The whole of the New Testament, with the 
possible exception of Matthew, was written in 
Greek. It was the Attic Greek, which had 
been modified by the Macedonian dialect and 



356 CULTURA. 

other causes, and which in Palestine had been 
greatly influenced by Hebrew forms and Chris- 
tian thought. For the past three centuries 
there has been a warm discussion going on in 
the Christian world in reference to this matter, 
and both sides have gone to extremes. While 
some have claimed for the New Testament 
writers even Attic elegance, other have yielded 
too much to supposed Hebrew and other mod- 
ifications. The truth is between the extremes. 
It is very evident that the Hellenistic Greek 
was much better adapted to the purposes of a 
universal religion than was the Attic dialect it- 
self, and the very modifications which the 
Greek language underwent were essential to 
the high purposes for which the language was 
to be used. As the Old Testament was written 
in the Hebrew, the greatest of the Semitic lan- 
guages, so the New Testament was written in 
the Greek, the greatest of the Indo-European 
languages. When the Old Testament was com- 
pleted, the Hebrew ceased to be a living lan- 
guage; so when the New Testament was com- 
pleted the Greek language, in God's providence, 
also ceased to be a living language. Thus we 



CULTURA. 357 

have the Oracles of God deposited in the great 
historic languages of the world, which are fixed 
mediums for the universal spread of the truth. 

The opposition to the true historical charac- 
ter of Christianity is mainly represented by 
three schools : (1) The school of Strauss ; (2) 
The school of Eenan ; (3) The school of Baur. 

The following are in the main the points of 
Strauss : (1) He insists that a portion of the 
New Testament is mythical. The great question 
before his mind seems to have been the question 
of the truth or falsehood of the New Testament 
narratives recording miracles. He thought that 
the natural events were in the main true, but 
that the supernatural events were false. (2) 
Strauss claims that the books of the New Testa- 
ment were written in the last half of the sec- 
ond century by unknown writers, and not by the 
apostles and their companions. (3) He accounts 
for the supernatural events found in the New 
Testament in the following way : The infant 
church believed in the Messiahship of Jesus, 
and thought that he must have wrought such 
miracles as are recorded in the Old Testament 
in reference to the prophets. He thus makes 



358 CULTURA. 

the Jewish belief in miracles, the basis of the 
belief in miracles by the d'sciples of Christ. (4) 
He thinks that the writers of these myths were 
self-deceived, and not conscious of any fraud. 
(5) In 1864 Strauss restated his theory, and 
showed evidence that he had come greatly un- 
der the influence of Baur. While before he had 
acquitted the disciples of intentional fraud, he 
now claims that they did not scruple to resort to 
pious fraud to accomplish their purposes. 

We urge the following objections to the theory 
of Strauss : (1) The natural and supernatural 
are so blended in the narratives that both must 
stand or fall together. I might give a number 
of illustrations just here, but all readers of the 
New Testament can readily see that there is no 
possible way of separating the natural and 
miraculous in the New Testament. Strauss 
seems to have realized the difficulty, and tries to 
strike out of the New Testament passages which 
bear the most unmistakable marks of being his- 
torical. (2) The genuineness of the canonical 
Gospels, which the severest criticism has not 
been able to invalidate, is a decisive argument 
against the mythical theory of Strauss. The 



CULTURA. 359 

German skeptic claims that these narratives were 
written the last half of the second century ; but 
the critics of the world have definitely decided 
that they were written more than one hundred 
years before this time. Strauss criticised these 
narratives with the most profane levity, but his 
work was a failure. Even Renan says: "The 
composition of the Gospels was one of the most 
important events to the future of Christianity 
which occurred during the second half of the 
first century." In referring to these narratives 
in another place he says: '^All, in my judgment, 
date back to the first century, and they are sub- 
stantially by the authors to whom they are at- 
tributed." (3) The theory of Strauss fails to ac- 
count for the belief of the apostles in the divin- 
ity of Christ. He says that there was a fixed 
idea that the Messiah would work miracles, and 
tliat there was a fixed persuasion among the dis- 
ciples that Jesus was the Messiah. But what 
caused that fixed persuasion on the part of the 
disciples that Jesus was the Christ ? They were 
very slow in belief, and were only convinced by 
the most astounding miracles. Their persua- 
sion never did become fixed until after the res- 



360 CULTUEA. 

urrection, and Thomas required the very strong- 
est evidence of the senses. Even the enemies of 
Jesus in the early history of Christianity did 
not deny his miracles. (4) The theory of 
Strauss that the writers of the New Testament 
were self-deceived, and not guilty of any fraud, 
bears upon its face the most reckless absurdity. 
If they wrote falsehood, they knew it, and their 
lives were entirely inconsistent with such a 
theory. If these narratives had contained 
myths, the early enemies of Christianity would 
have pointed them out. (5) The restatement of 
his theory by Strauss in 1864 was largely a re- 
traction. While before this he exonorated the 
disciples from intentional deceptiou, he now 
claims that they did not hesitate to deceive to 
carry out their purposes. The moral character 
of the disciples is a sufficient answer to the base- 
less charge of the German skeptic to save his 
own false theory. (6) The mythical theory is 
disproved from the fact that there was no body 
of disciples to whom the origination of myths 
can be attributed. The disciples formed one 
body at the time Strauss claims that the myths 
originated, and there is not time enough be- 



CXJLTURA. 361 

tween the death of Christ and the written nar- 
ratives of miracles for the formation of myths. 
(7) The mythical theory is inconsistent with the 
times in which Christianity originated. Myths 
appear in the infancy of a nation; but Christi- 
anity took its origin in the age of such histor- 
ians as Tacitus and Josephus. (8) The mythi- 
cal theory can not account for the faith of the 
apostles in the resurrection of Christ. (9) The 
sophistical character of the criticism applied by 
Strauss to the contents of the New Testament 
bears heavily against his theory. The forced 
likeness between the miracles of the Old and 
New Testaments is entirely unworthy of a true 
critic. (10) The mythical theory is founded up- 
on a false system of philosophy. Its author be- 
longed to the left wing of the Hegelian philos- 
ophy, which adopted methods of interpretation 
exactly the opposite of the true historic method. 
We thus present the legendary theory of 
Renan: (1) He admits the genuineness of 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and although he some- 
what hesitates, that of John also. He thinks it 
quite well established by historical evidence that 
John wrote the narrative before the end of the 



362 CTJLTURA. 

first century. (2) He accepts the ordinary his- 
tory contained in the New Testament upon the 
same grounds upon which Christians accept it, 
but rejects everything supernatural. (3) He ad- 
mits that Jesus was the highest type of mankind 
intellectually and morally, and that the disciples 
were worthy followers of their Master. (4) He 
divides the life of Christ into three periods : (a) 
He places Jesus before us in a lovely light, and 
presents a character far above all other youths in 
Palestine. (6) In this period he comes in con- 
tact with the great Baptist, and is inspired with 
a desire to set up a kingdom, (c) In this period 
he claims that Jesus feels disappointed, and is 
hurried on to a death which he could not avoid. 
He accuses Jesus of artifice, and that he consent- 
ed to deception in reference to the raising of 
Lazarus. 

The following points show the absurdity of 
Kenan's theory : (1) Renan has shown himself 
to be an unsafe critic. In his work on the His- 
tory of the Semitic Languages, he asserts that 
the Semitic race always had an inbred tendency 
to monotheism. This is altogether an incorrect 
statement ; for the Persians, who came the near- 



CULTURA. 363 

est to monotheism of any nation of antiquity 
except the Jews, belonged to the Indo-European 
race, and not to the Semitic. (2) Kenan's ad- 
missions in reference to the character of Christ, 
and the genuineness of the four gospels, involve 
him in contradictions, and defeat his whole theory. 
(3) Any just critic can see that this author is de- 
void of historical perception, and much of what 
he writes is contradicted by the plainist histori- 
cal facts. (4) The Frenchman has based his 
theory upon a false conception of God, and he 
fails to give any satisfactory explanation of the 
person of Christ. No pantheist can be just to 
the facts of New Testament history. (5) The 
three periods into which Renan divides the life 
of Christ are arbitrary, and his legendary theory 
perfectly lawless. It is evident from the Gospel 
narratives that Jesus from the beginning intended 
to establish a kingdom. It is also evident that 
he predicted his death, and prepared himself to 
die for the redemption of the world. Renan 
does not claim that the legends were a pure crea- 
tion, but rather a transfiguration of facts. His 
efforts to separate the legends from facts are law- 
less, and show that the natural and the super- 



364 CULTURA. 

natural in the New Testament must stand or fall 
together. 

The following points represent the theory of 
Baur, who was the founder of the Tubingen 
school : (1) Baur modified the mythical theory 
of Strauss, and introduced what is called the 
tendency theory. This theory maintains that 
the miracles of the New Testament were con- 
scious inventions in the interest of the different 
theological parties, which divided the early 
church. (2) This theory claims that primitive 
Christianity was an Ebionitic development of 
Judaism. (3) Baur claims that Paul's conver- 
sion was the reaction of a guilty conscience, and 
that the apostle to the Gentiles was the first to 
originate the conception of Christianity as a uni- 
versal religion. 

Baur's theory is refuted by the following facts : 
(1) The object to be accomplished by the early 
Christians was a unit, and Baur's representation 
of the spirit of different parties is contradicted 
by facts. (2) Christianity from the beginning 
was designed to be universal, and Christ com- 
manded his apostles to go into all the world, and 
preach the Gospel to every creature. (3) The 



CULTURA. 365 

tendency-theory is inconsistent with the Book 
of Acts and the conversion of Paul. Strauss 
saw the difficult}^, and seemed to avoid the Book 
of Acts. Baur tried to supply this deficiency in 
Strauss, and openly charges the author of Acts 
with intentional falsehood. This imputation all 
true critics must reject with scorn. His remarks 
on the conversion of Paul clearly indicate the 
weakness of his cause, and he seems himself to 
have been dissatisfied with it. Later in life he 
declared that in the " conversion of Paul, in his 
sudden transformation from the most vehement 
adversary into the most resolute herald of Chris- 
tianity, we can see nothing short of a miracle.^' 
In view of all the facts in the life of Paul, no one 
will ever be able to explain his conversion who 
does not accept the supernatural elements so 
manifest in all parts of the New Testament. 

Christianity in its historical development shows 
itself in perfect harmony with its supernatural 
origin. It has introduced into the world a new 
conception of God, and the Fatherhood of God 
as taught by Christianity has done much towards 
civilizing the world. Christianity has also given 
to the world a new conception of man, and the 



366 CULTURA. 

universal brotherhood of mankind as taught by 
the Christian religion has done much towards 
unifying the nations. Christianity teaches the 
duty of man to man, and of nation to nation ; 
and its principles greatly tend to the elevation of 
society. In fact, if any nation would live in 
harmony with the teachings of the Bible, every 
fair critic must admit, that society in that nation 
would reach perfection. Every sociologist must 
admit that Christianity is the religion of univer- 
sal progress ; and that it is the standard author- 
ity for all who seek the elevation of mankind. 
We can therefore safely conclude that the Bible 
is in perfect harmony with the highest historical 
culture ; and it is the Book which teaches princi- 
ples that will lead to the perfection of humanity. 



^HAPIPEI^ lU. 

The Highest Literaey Culture and the 
Bible. 

The Bible fosters learning as does no other 
book. When, in A. D. 642, Alexandria, the 
seat of the world's great library, was taken by 
the Saracens, this famous library was destroyed. 
The following is said to have been the terse 
reply of the Caliph Omar in reference to its 
destruction : " If these Grecian books agree with 
the K oran, they are useless ; if not, they should 
be destroyed." This shows the hostility of the 
Koran to all true culture. It may be claimed 
that the Arabians fostered learning in Spain. 
This is evidently true, but they had adopted the 
culture of the Greeks. Nestorian Christians 
had placed Greek authors in their hands, and in 
spite of the authority of the Koran, they took 
interest in literary work. We may safely state 
just here that everything that is of any real 
value in the Koran was borrowed from the 
Bible. 



368 CULTURA. 

That the Bible fosters learning is evident 
from the fact thai all the great universities of 
the world have been established by nations 
which take the Bible as the highest standard of 
life. When an embassy was sent by an African 
prince to inquire of England's queen the cause 
of the greatness of her country, Victoria sent 
him a Bible for a present, and informed him 
that this book was the cause of England's great- 
ness. Mr. Everett is responsible for the follow- 
ing language : " It was not the knowledge of 
the Latin and Greek which kept the Bible from 
perishing, while they were temporary vehicles 
of its circulation; it was the study of the 
Scriptures and the labors of Christian men 
which mainly contributed to prevent these lan- 
guages from dying out.'' 

The Bible is doing for the English language 
what it has done for the Greek. Coleridge says 
that intense study of the Bible will keep any 
writer from being vulgar in style. Prof. 
George P. Marsh, one of the greatest critics of 
our language, thus speaks of Tyndale's transla- 
tion of the New Testament : " It has exerted a 
more marked influence upon English philology 



CULTURA. 369 

than any other native work between the ages of 
Chaucer and Shakespeare/' Prof. Peabody, of 
Harvard, says : " This leads me to speak of the 
most important service that has been rendered 
by our English Bible. It is the chief reason 
why we can understand it now. It has been an 
anchor to the language, which, since it was 
published, has sustained less change than it pre- 
viously sustained every fifty years. It arrested 
at the happiest stage the Normanizing or Latin- 
izing process, that had been going on for centu- 
ries before, and preserved for us the rugged 
force of those Anglo-Saxon words which were 
fast vanishing from popular use. Our Bible is 
still the key to the best English diction, and by 
conversance with it our children are made famil- 
iar with their own language, in a purer form 
than any other which can be placed before 
them. There can be no doubt that better Eng- 
lish is spoken by the people at large in New 
England than anywhere else in the world ; and 
there can be equally little doubt that this is due 
to the fact that, until now, the Bible has helped 
form the diction of almost every child that has 
been educated at a New England school." 



370 CULTURA. 

It is a historic fact that the revival of learning 
and the Protestant E,ef)rmation were contem- 
porary. The great leaders in secular thought 
acknowledged that they got their inspiration 
from the Bible. Lord Bacon uses these memor- 
able words : " Thy creatures have been my 
books; but thy Scriptures much more." Sir 
Isaac Newton, the greatest of natural philoso- 
phers, freely acknowledged his obligations to 
the Bible. He uses this pointed language : ** I 
count the Scriptures of God to be the most sub- 
lime philosophy." The sublime themes of the 
sacred Scriptures inspired this great philosopher 
with the greatest enthusiasm Macaulay says: 
" It is chiefly to the great reformation of reli- 
gion that we owe the great reformation of phil- 
osophy." The same thought is even made 
more emphatic by Guizot in his History of 
Civilization. The following is from Schweg- 
ler^s History of Philosophy : " In their origin, 
both kinds of Protestantism, that of religion 
and that of thought, are one and the same, and 
in their progress they have also gone hand in 
hand together. For religion, reduced to its 
simple elements, will be found to have its 



CULTURA. 371 

source, like philosophy, in the self-knowledge 
of the reason.^' 

No one will question the fact that the Refor- 
mation owes its chief power to the Bible. 
Luther, the great German reformer, made it 
his daily study, and translated it into the Ger- 
man language. This translation has done for 
the German language about the same thing that 
our common version has done for the English 
language. Dr. Gothiel, a Jewish scholar, says : 
" It is far superior, in vigor and beauty, to that 
of the English Vulgate. The latter is the work 
of bishops and scholars ; the former that of a 
poet and great original nature." The following 
is from the poet Heine : *^ How Luther got the 
language into which to translate the Bible is to 
this hour incomprehensible to me, for he trans- 
lated it from a language which had ceased to 
exist into one which had not yet arrived." 

We have already shown that the Bible has 
always been the great support of learning, and 
will now proceed to show that it is the greatest 
literary production in the world. Plato was 
evidently the greatest literary genius among the 
intellectual Greeks ; but when we compare him 



372 CULTURA. 

to the Apostle Paul, the apostle towers even 
above the great Greek philosopher as a moun- 
tain towers above the sea. Plato was born in 
Athens; Paul in Tarsus of Cilicia. Plato lived 
more than four hundred years before Christ, 
during the Peloponnesian war; Paul was con- 
temporary with Jesus, and lived just after the 
age of Augustus. Plato belonged to the most 
intelligent race of the great Indo-European 
family; Paul was a Hebrew, the most advanced 
race of the Semitic family. The native lan- 
guage of Plato was Greek; that of Paul was 
Hebrew. Plato was the greatest of philoso- 
phers; Paul the greatest of apostles. Plato 
was great, but Paul was greater. 

The superiority of Paul to Plato consisted in 
the superiority of his profession to that of Plato. 
Had Paul never been anything more than a dis- 
ciple of Gamaliel, he would never have reached 
u higher position in this world than did the 
disciple of the great Socrates. It was in the 
fact that Paul became a disciple of Christ that 
he has wielded such an influence over the 
nations. Thousands of persons read the writ- 
ings of Paul, while one reads the writings of 



CULTURA. 373 

Plato. The time has not been when Paul had 
as great influence in the world as he has at the 
present time. It is because the influence of 
Christianity is greater now than it has been in 
the past. The religious element in man's nature 
is the highest ; and as this is developed by the pure 
religion of which Paul was the greatest advocate, 
the more powerful will his influence become. 

It is claimed by some that Christianity was 
borrowed from the philosophy of Plato. How 
does it happen, then, that this religion rises so 
much above what has been called the divine 
philosophy ? In nature, we know that a stream 
can not rise above its source. 

If this position with regard to the origin of 
Christianity were true, the stream must rise 
above its source and contradict an established 
fact in nature. A miracle would then have to 
be introduced in order to account for the pro- 
gress of Christianity, and for its universal spirit, 
in contrast with the narrowness of the Platonic 
philosophy. A careful study of Plato and Paul 
will convince any reasonable man that Paul had 
._a-aource of inspiration far superior to anything 
known to the intellectual Greeks. 



374 CULTURA. 

Paul had a knowledge of immortality un- 
known to Plato. Among the Greek philoso- 
phers, the Epicureans were Materialists, the 
Stoics were Pantheists, while the disciples of 
Socrates, Piato and Aristotle, were believers in 
the immortality of the soul. The doctrine of 
materialism was as ably presented then as at the 
present; and considering the then condition of 
physiological science, the doctrine of immortality 
was as ably discussed by the Greek philosophers 
yV\ as by the philosophers of the present time. 
Philosophy has no new arguments to present on 
the subject. The distinction which Paul makes 
between the spirit and the soul was not clearly 
made by Plato, nor does philosophy at this time 
fully recognize it. The doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion as taught by Paul gives immortality a force 
which was not understood even by the great 
Plato. 

Matthew Arnold's theory of literary culture 
is in many respects very interesting, and it con- 
tains a good deal of truth ; but in other particu- 
lars it is very deficient. While he recognizes 
religion as an essential element in his theory, he 
does not assign to it the right place. This Ian- 



CULTURA. 375 

guage, which he adopts from Bishop Wilson, is 
certainly praiseworthy : " To make reason and the 
kingdom of God prevail/' He thinks that the 
highest scientific culture should be used in order 
that the kingdom of God might prevail in us and 
around us. No objection to his theory thus far. 
The results which culture reaches, according to 
Mr. Arnold, are in harmony with the objects of 
the Christian religion. In the following points 
Mr. Arnold's theory is in harmony with the 
Christianity of the Bible : (1) It places perfec- 
tion in the soul of man, and not in merely ex- 
ternal good ; (2) it sets before man a condition 
of growth, and not simply one of rest ; (3) it 
holds that a man must embrace the good of others 
as well as the good of self in order to reach per- 
fection. 

While we can highly recommend Mr. Arnold's 
theory in many particulars, in some respects it is 
very deficient and misleading. In some respects 
Mr. Arnold thinks that culture can go beyond 
religion. If he simply views religion from the 
sectarian standpoint, this might be true ; but the 
Christianity of the Bible certainly contemplates 
the perfection of humanity. It educates the 



376 CULTURA. 

highest elements in man's nature, and insists 
upon the culture of all his faculties. It contem- 
plates the perfection of man, body, soul and 
spirit. When Christianity completely triumphs 
in this world, then will reason and the kingdom 
of God prevail. The mistake of Mr. Arnold's 
theory is to place as subordinate that which 
should be supreme, and make supreme that which 
should minister as subordinate to a higher than 
itself. 

Mr. Arnold thinks that Goethe would have 
found the society of Luther intolerable, and that 
Shakespeare could not have endured the com- 
pany of the Puritans. It must be remembered 
that Luther was as great a genius as was Goethe, 
and that he really gave Goethe a language in 
which to write. While in that age of contro- 
versy Luther's sectarian spirit might have been 
unpleasant to Goethe, the life of the great Ger- 
man author might have been rebuked by the far 
purer life of the great German reformer. While 
Goethe highly complimented the Bible, he was 
far from living up to its teaching. There were 
evidently some pecularities about the Puritans 
that would have been unpleasant to Shakespeare ; 



CULTURA. 377 

but even Puritauism produced one of the great- 
est literary men of the world. While the life of 
John Milton was far more pure than was the life 
of Shakespeare, in his particular line the great 
Puritan was fully as great a genius as was Eng- 
land's greatest dramatist. No one will question 
the fact that the inspiration of Milton's genius 
was entirely dependent upon the word of God. 
Schlegel, in speaking of the three great writers 
of the Elizabethan age — Spenser, Shakespeare, 
Milton — says: "In truth, these three greatest 
poets of England contain within themselves 
everything that is really great and remarkable 
in regard to her older literature of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries.'' These great writers 
have shown their dependence upon Biblical truth. 
I have taken some pains to examine Shake- 
speare's references to the Bible, and it is very 
evident that he makes the Bible the background 
of the morals in all his great productions. He 
shows quite a thorough knowledge of the books 
and characters in the Bible. He makes the 
blood of Abel cry for justice over Gloster's mur- 
der, "even from the tongueless caverns of the 
earth." The dramatist summons back to earth 



378 CULTURA. 

" the majesty of buried Denmark," as if the 
witch of Endor were again employing her arts. 
The wicked Gloster recites the betrayal by Ju- 
das, who 

" kissed his master , 
And cried 'All hail !' when he meant all harm." 

The Bible warnings against sin are recognized 

in the following words of Richard III : 

" My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, 
And every tongue brings in a several tale, 
And every tale condemns me for a villain." 

Hamlet finds his text in Job when he speaks of 

" The undiscovered country from whose bourne 
No traveler returns. " 

Prospero, in the Tempest, takes his text from 

the writings of Peter : 

" Like the baseless fabric of this vision. 
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve. 
And, like this unsubstantial pageant faded. 
Leave not a rack behind." 

These are only a few of the examples where 
the great dramatist borrows from the Sacred Ora- 
cles. He speaks of the Garden of Eden ; of 
Noah and the Deluge; of the fog of Egypt, 
and the lean kine of Paraoh ; of Abraham, Job, 
Samson, Solomon, David, Daniel, and others. 



CULTURA. 379 

He also repeatedly mentions the paiables of the 
Prodigal Son and the Rich Man and Lazarus. 
Any critical student of Shakespeare will soon 
find that the great dramatist was largely indebt- 
ed to the Bible for many of his characters. 

The greatest authors have recognized the su- 
perior literary merit of the books of the Bible. 
Prof. Briggs has this to say in reference to Pen- 
tateuch : " The histories contained in the Penta- 
teuch are the foundation of all subsequent his- 
tory. The grand hymn in Exodus, the prayer 
in the ninetieth Psalm, the prophetic didactic 
poem in Dueteronomy are the great boughs of 
lyric poetry upon which the Psalter subsequent- 
ly burst forth in all its glory ; and the prophetic 
discourses in Dueteronomy, are the sources, as 
they give the key to all subsequent prophecy. " 
The book of Job has been called the Shake- 
speare of the Bible. Carlyle says : " I call that, 
apart from all theories about it, one of the 
grandest things ever written with pen. Such 
living likenesses were never since drawn. Sub- 
lime sorrow, sublime reconciliation; oldest 
choral melody as of the heart of mankind — so 
soft and great ; as the summer midnight, as the 



380 CULTURA. 

world with its seas and stars. There is nothing 
written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of 
equal literary merit/' Prof Bowen calls it 
the grandest of philosophical poem in the liter- 
ature of the world, and Daniel Webster declared 
that it was as much above Homer as Homer 
was higher than mere rhyme. Dean Stanley 
called David the Homer of Jewish song, and 
Thomas Jefferson declared that the Book of 
Psalms was far superior to any other book of 
the kind. Mr. Gladstone says : "All the won- 
ders of Greek civilization heaped together are 
less wonderful than is the simple book of 
Psalms — the history of the human soul in rela- 
tion to its Maker/' Coleridge called the Book 
of Proverbs the best statesman's manual ever 
written, and Wordsworth claimed that it was 
the world's moral and spiritual manual for all 
time. Dr. Guthrie says : " It fulfills in a unique 
and pre-eminent degree the requirements of effec- 
tive oratory, not only every chapter, but every 
verse, and almost every clause of every verse, 
expressing something that both strikes and 
sticks." Herder says : " The Song of Solomon 
means songs of love, the oldest and most beau- 



CULTUKA. 381 

tiful of the Orient." Dr. Peabody says of the 
Book of Ecclesiastes : " This is the most instruc- 
tive, impressive, touching autobiography ever 
written." 

The New Testament has received equal praise 
on account of its literary merits. The rhetori- 
cian Longinus pronounced Paul the greatest 
orator the world had produced. Erasmus de- 
clared that the Sermon on the Mount and the 
Parables of Christ were above the eloquence of 
Cicero. It is said that Wordsworth was inspired 
to write his Ode on Immortality by reading the 
fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians ; and that 
Spenser was indebted to the sixth chapter of 
Ephesians for the character of the Ped Cross 
Knight in his Faerie Queene. Many other au- 
thorities might be given, but we have given 
sufficient to show the literary character of the 
Bible. All men need do is to study this wonder- 
ful book with a proper spirit, and they will appre- 
ciate it. 

French skeptics highly praise a selection read 
from the Bible by Dr. Franklin, but did not 
know from what book he read it. Dr. Johnson 
read the Book of Ruth to a club of skeptics, and 



382 CULTURA. 

they agreed with Goethe in pronouncing it the 
most beautiful little book ever written. 

When we consider the different books and 
writers of the Bible, and all the circumstances 
under which this marvelous book was produced, 
we are forced to conclude that holy men of old 
spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. 
Still the question of inspiration concerns the how, 
and not the what. The Bible might contain a 
correct record of a supernatural religion, and not 
be inspired. No one questions the great facts of 
Herodotus or Tacitus, yet these writers were not 
inspired. I have examined somewhat carefully 
the different theories of inspiration, and am satis- 
fied that they have been a curse instead of a 
blessing. They have presented extreme views, 
and have consequently led to infidelity. When 
I look upon this beautiful earth, I find parts of 
it rich, and parts of it poor, but I know that God 
created it; so I find differences in the produc- 
tions of inspired writers, but have convincing 
evidence that the Bible contains a revelation 
from God. 



The Highest Esthetic Culture and the 
Bible. 

God has placed in man's nature a faculty by 
which he can perceive and feel beauty in both 
nature and art. The very image of God in crea- 
tion is comprehended in the sense of beauty. 
The adjective beautiful may be used to designate 
the quality in an object that excites in man the 
emotion of be luty ; beauty may be designated 
the emotion, and the beautiful may be used to 
represent the intellectual antecedent of the emo- 
tion of beauty. We must be careful, and avoid 
all extremes in the discussion of this subject. 
As in philosophy, so in art, realism and idealism 
have been the extremes representing rival schools. 
The truth is in the golden mean. Idealism leads 
to mysticism, and realism to sensualism. Both 
extremes have always been deadly foes to art. 
When art has been most successful, the golden 
mean has been adopted. 



384 CULTURA. 

Some eminent critics have taken the position 
that art's only mission is to please. I can not 
agree with these gentlemen, and must insist 
that art represents life. The first facts of art are 
to be found in God and creation. Nature is the 
expression of the very life of God, and all legiti- 
mate art is the expression of that which is God- 
like in man and his life. Man is the offspring of 
God, and that which is purest and best in man is 
most like God. Nature is alone the work of 
God, and that which is best in art is that which 
is most like nature. For example, God ex- 
presses an idea in a beautiful landscape ; man's 
sense of beauty is excited by it, and he paints a 
picture. The picture that is most like the land- 
scape will be the most beautiful. While insist- 
ing that art should harmonize with nature, I do 
not mean that it should be a servile imitator. It 
cau make combinations that will greatly heighten 
beauty in a natural object ; but it should never 
contradict nature, and its combinations should be 
found somewhere in the world of matter or the 
world of mind. 

Nature, which is the work of the great Artist, 
is designed to minister unto life. The sun, the 



CTTLTURA. 385 

moon and the stars, the blue expanse above our 
heads, the ocean, are all without meaning except 
as they relate to life. The inorganic feeds the 
animal, the animal feeds man, and the animal 
life of man is designed to minister to the higher 
life of the spirit. There is life everywhere — 
from the animalcule to the highest angel in the 
heavens. God, through nature, ministers to life. 
Beauty in nature is not for beauty's sake^ but it 
is for the good of man. 

As nature, the work of the great Artist, 
ministers to life, so all true art is not an end in 
itself, but is designed to minister to the life of 
man. A work of art which ignores life's mis- 
sion is either without value, or a thing of mischief. 
An artist should always consider before painting 
a picture what there is in him that can be so ex- 
pressed on canvas as to minister to the life of 
others. The immortality of Grecian art re- 
sulted from its ministering to the highest life 
of its age. 

A young artist once asked Michael Angelo if 
his work would live. This great sculptor replied, 
"The light of the public square will test its 
value," thus confessing his own incompetence to 



386 CULTURA. 

fully decide its fate. The greatest works have 
not always been appreciated by those who lived 
at the time of their production ; but their high 
mission was reserved for those who lived in a 
more advanced age. 

Eeligion is absolutely essential to the highest 
culture in art. This was Ruskin's final decision. 
He says : " Giotto's work was inferior to the 
Venetians only in the material sciences of the 
craft, and that, in the real make up of him, he 
was after all superior to them, just on account of 
his religious faith.'' 

All that is most noble in modern art took its 
origin in the thirteenth century. The paralysis 
which had so long held back Europe was broken, 
and the faculties of the human mind were alive 
to progress. Religion and patriotism were the 
great themes of conversation, and art assumed the 
position of a teacher. Mental progress through- 
out Europe was rapid and sincere, and art 
flourished as it never had before, and as it never 
has since. It covered Europe with religious 
buildings, which have been the despair as well as 
reverence of succeeding times. It was the age of 
Giotto, Dante, Columbus, and Michael Angelo. 



CULTURA. 387 

Giotto has been called the father of Christian 
art, and his influence was felt for centuries in 
the expression of religious emotion. Yasari 
thus speaks of the school to which Giotto be- 
longed : " We painters occupy ourselves entirely 
in tracing saints on the walls and on the altars, 
in order that by this means men, to the great 
despite of demons, may be better and more 
devout." The same author says of Giotto: 
" He was no less remarkable as a Christian than 
as a painter.'^ 

One of the great representatives of religious 
art was Fra Angelico, of Fiesolo. Vasari says 
of him that he never could have reached such 
heights in art had it not been for his devoted 
and holy life. It is said that he never took up 
pencil without first engaging in prayer. When- 
ever he painted the crucifixion tears would 
stream down his cheeks. He shunned the com- 
merce of the world, and gave his entire atten- 
tion to art and religion. He positively refused 
to paint other than sacred subjects. 

When we speak of the Florentine school, the 
first name that attracts our attention is that of 
Michael Angelo. He is said to have been 



388 CULTURA. 

greatly influenced by the writings of Dante and 
the great Italian reformer, Savonarola. As 
were they, so was he filled with visions and 
thoughts of the judgment to come. It is not 
surprising, then, that this great artist could 
paint more sublimely than could any other 
" The Last Judgment.'' The Last Judgment 
and statue of Moses were doubtless his master- 
pieces, and they have never been equaled in 
sublimity by any other artist. As Michael was 
the first among angels, so Michael Angelo was 
the first among artists. Michael means like 
unto God, and the great artist certainly pos- 
sessed the divine spirit. Angelo's great power 
lay in majesty. He was ignorant of color, and 
depended upon expression and design. His 
genius immortalized sculpture and fresco paint- 
ing. What was sublime in this great artist 
became exaggeration among his imitators. 

As Angelo represents the Florentine school, 
so Raphael represents the Roman. He was 
preeminently the artist of spiritual beauty. His 
greatest work is the Sistine Madonna. The 
Madonna represents the highest Christian con- 
ception of woman. It is true that this elevated 



CULTURA. 389 

conception of the mother of Christ ran to 
extremes, and led some to worship the human 
instead of the divine ; but such is not the case 
with those who critically study KaphaeFs work. 
It certainly represents the purest and highest 
religious conceptions. The graceful figure, with 
floating drapery, and the sweet face bearing on 
it the shadow of life's sorrow, causes the be- 
holder to feel that he is in the presence of one 
as pure and bright as the highest angel. He 
does not feel like worshiping the picture, but 
like praying for purity, and worshiping God. 

In color the Roman school was dry, and 
lacked in harmony. If Raphael had lived he 
evidently would have profited by the Venetian 
school in this respect. This school was the 
greatest in color, and the greatest of the school 
was Titian. He was the most complete painter 
the world has ever known, and was inferior in 
nothing. He had not the grace of expression 
of Raphael, nor the sublimity of Angelo, but 
surpassed them both in the general qualifications 
of his art. Of all his compositions the greatest, 
in technical power and intensity of expression, 
is Peter the Martyr, on which he worked eight 



390 CULTURA. 

years. The fallen Peter vainly endeavors to 
avert the murderous blows of the assassin, 
while his eyes brighten at the vision of Para- 
dise. 

Titian is an artist who should be much stud- 
ied, especially by painters, for he constantly 
impresses the fact that the chief object of the 
painter is to paint. Color was with him even 
more expressive of the idea than form, and no 
other artist could make color speak as could he. 
If Angelo, Raphael, and Titian could be har- 
monized into one soul, we would have a perfect 
artist. In the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth 
we have such an artist. 

The Bible is the production of the Great 
Artist, and it ministers to the life of man. In 
this book God condescends to speak to man in 
words. The everlasting hills, the restless sea, 
the burning stars, while they declare God^s 
glory, they are not sufficient; but God speaks 
to man in the language of man. He conveys 
his life to us in the form of words. Is there 
any art in this? Examine the character of the 
language, and you will see. He does not simply 
teach us to be patient, but gives us the Book of 



CULTTJRA. 391 

Job, one of the grandest works of art ever 
produced, where we can learn the great lesson. 
The Book of Ruth is another work of art — the 
sweetest pastoral in existence — where is taught 
filial love in the sweetest form. 

David was a great artist. His Psalms are the 
outpourings of his heart in the events of his 
life. He not only sang for his own age, but 
for all future ages. There is no sorrow so great 
that it can not find consolation in the twenty- 
third Psalm. Why is the Book of Psalms so 
popular? There is but one answer to this ques- 
tion — they convey spiritual life to the soul of 
man. 

The Jewish tabernacle was a wonderful work 
of art. The temple of Solomon was modeled 
after it, and exactly doubled its dimensions. 
This marvelous temple existed long before the 
great artistic productions of the Greeks. Its 
influence upon art has certainly been very 
great, and those who will study it carefully can 
not well reach any other conclusion than that 
it originally came from a divine model. 

The New Testament, as well as the Old, has 
in it the artistic element. Jesus taught in 



392 CULTURA. 

parables, in whicli life and duty are presented 
in a most pleasing way. Never man taught as 
did Jesus, for he had direct authority from his 
Father to present the grand principles of the 
kingdom of God. With him all nature is full 
of the life of God, and is used in illus- 
trating his themes. He carried out the true 
mission of art, which is to give life to the 
people. 

The ancient painters, who represented God 
as a kind of oriental monarch, gave a wrong 
conception of his character. God is beautiful. 
"How great is his holiness, and how great is 
his beauty '^ (Zeeh. ix. 17). Jesus, our Saviour, 
was altogether lovely. Man can not take spirit- 
ual food from the hands of spiritual chemistry ; 
it must be organized. Even God himself must 
be manifested to man in human life. While 
Jesus was the Son of God, he was also the Son 
of man. Leonardo da Vinci, one of the most 
complete of artists, painted the " Last Supper," 
which has been called the highest effort of 
Christian art. He was especially gifted in 
representing both the human and the divine; and 
all who look upon the picture will feel like 



CULTTJRA. 393 

worshiping him who was both the Son of God 
and the Son of man. 

The Church of Christ is beautiful. The 
tabernacles of the Lord of hosts are beautiful, 
and the Church is the true tabernacle, which 
the Lord built, and not man. The Church is 
compared to a bride in all her virgin loveliness, 
and Christ will present her before the throne of 
God, without blemish, wrinkle or spot. 

In physical, intellectual and moral beauty, 
we have beauty in an ascending scale. The 
highest ornament is moral or spiritual beauty. 
It gives a solar light which elevates man above 
his fellows. Stephen possessed it when his face 
shone like the face of an angel. Absolute and 
ultimate beauty resides in God, and we possess 
the more of it the nearer we get to God. So 
man can always have an ideal before his mind 
which he will never fully reach in this world, 
but can realize it in heaven. 

Thou lovely angel ! 

We admire, 
Till our hearts 

Are set on fire ; 
And as privilege, 

And not as duty, 



394 CULTUEA. 

We look to a sublime 
And spiritual beauty. 

We feel grateful that beauty can be enjoyed 
by all, and can not be exclusively appropriated 
by any. The poor man can have gold in the 
setting sun and silver in the rising moon. The 
resources of beauty in nature can not be ex- 
hausted. The smiling flower upon the adaman- 
tine hill is free to all. Every son of God can 
possess the graces which adorn a perfect char- 
acter. The Great Artist is preparing for us a 
city which will be a perfect museum of beau- 
tiful things. If we will conform our lives to 
the divine life, we will enjoy all these lovely 
ornaments in the city of God. 



She ©endengies op (Den op 

(sUIiiliUI^E. 



PART FOURTH. 

THE TENDENCIES OF MEN OF 
CULTUKE. 



©HAPTBI^ I. 

The Platonic Philosophy and 
Christianity. 

Philosophy is the highest and truest science, 
for it specially pertains to causes, effects and 
principles; it has for its object the investigation 
of those fundamental principles upon which all 
knowledge and all being ultimately rest. 
Various definitions have been given of this 
science of first principles by the philosophers of 
the past. According to Ueberweg, one of the 
most full and complete writers on the history of 
philosophy, philosophy is the science of first 
principles ; it is included under the general name 
of science, but differs from the remaining sciences 
in that it is not occupied with a limited province 

397 



398 CXJLTURA. 

of things, but with the nature and laws of what- 
ever actually exists. Lord Bacon confines phil- 
osophy to that part of human learning which 
specially pertains to the reason. Sir William 
Hamilton substantially accepts the Aristotelian 
view of philosophy, that it is equivalent to a 
knowledge of things in their origin and causes. 
The word philosophy, which means a love of 
wisdom, is first found in the writings of Herodo- 
tus. It is attributed to Pythagoras, who selected 
it as a more modest title than sophist or wise 
man. The word was appropriated and first 
popularized by Socrates. He preferred it as more 
modest than the arrogant designation of the 
sophists. The name was originally assumed in 
modesty, but did not retain Socratic meaning; 
it returned to the pretentious pride of the 
sophists. 

THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE PLATONIC 
PHILOSOPHY. 

Strictly speaking, philosophy took its origin 
among the Greeks. It is true that the Orientals 
philosophized, but their philosophy is altogether 
blended with their mythology. 



CULTUEA. 399 

There are also mythic cosmogonies of the 
Greeks, belonging to the Homeric age, that we 
do not include in philosophy. They belong to 
Greek mythology. The writings of Homer may 
be called the Bible of the Greeks. Although 
the Orientals had a high culture, philosophy 
could not have originated with them; because 
they held this culture too much in a passive state. 

We can not look to the North for philosophy. 
Although the Northmen were eminent for 
strength and courage, they were devoid of 
culture. But the Hellenes combined a wonder- 
ful culture with extraordinary courage. There 
was no lack of activity on the part of the heroic 
Greeks. 

The great philosophical center among the 
Greeks was the city of Athens. It was really 
the university of Greece. The greatest of all 
the monuments of Athens which has survived the 
waste of time is her philosophy. The Parthenon 
of Minerva, and all the beautiful gems of Gre- 
cian architecture, are now in ruins. The works 
of Phidias, which adorned the temples of the 
gods and goddesses, and crowned the platform of 
the Acropolis, are now no more, except a few 



400 CULTURA. 

fragments which have been taken to other coun- 
tries, and remain as relics of the departed great- 
ness of the once proud city. While the fingers 
of time have crumbled the Pentelic marble, and 
the glorious works of art have been broken by 
vandal hands, the philosophic thought of Athens, 
which culminated in the dialectics of Plato, still 
remains. The criticism of more than two thou- 
sand years has not improved much upon the 
methods of Plato. As a great writer truly says : 
"Platonism is immortal, because the principles 
are immortal in the human intellect and heart." 
Greek philosophy has received various classifica- 
tions. In view of the prevailing spirit and 
tendency of the different schools, Cousin, the 
great philosopher of France, has classified them 
as the sensational, the idealistic, the skeptical, 
and the mythical. Preceding the Platonic phil- 
osophy, we have the Ionian and the Italian 
schools ; the sophistic philosophy, and the Socra- 
tic. There is a tendency in the human mind to 
extremes ; it is only the greatest and best balanced 
minds that can avoid them. 

The Ionian and Italic schools both represent 
extreme tendencies in thought, and they were the 



CULTT7RA. 401 

opposites to each other. They prepared the way 
for the skepticism of the sophists. The world 
then needed the great Socrates. Thales of 
Miletus, born 640 years B. C, is regarded by 
Aristotle as the founder of Ionic natural phil- 
osophy, and indirectly as the founder of Greek 
philosophy in general. The fundamental doc- 
trine of his natural philosophy is that water is 
the original source of all things. Aristotle sup- 
poses that he was impressed with this thought 
from observing that all things are nourished by 
moisture ; the earth originated in the condensa- 
tion of water. If Aristotle's representation of the 
Thalean physics is correct, it only recognized the 
material cause of the universe. Anaximenes, 
not Anaximander, was the real successor of 
Thales. To him water was not the most univer- 
sal and significant element; but air seemed to 
him as the universal and primary element. He 
regarded the soul as aeriform. Thus we see that 
materialism is not modern, as some insist, but 
took its origin in the earliest school of philosophy. 
It belongs not to the manhood, but to the very 
infancy of philosophy. Anaximander, Leucippus, 
and others, belonged to what may be called the 



402 CX7LTURA. 

mechanical sect of the Ionian school; because 
that reasoned from the analogies of phenomena, 
rather than from the evolution of particles of 
matter. Thej were also materialistic. The 
Ionic school did not get beyond the senses ; it 
taught an extreme realism, which led to material- 
ism. With this school, sense perception was the 
only source of knowledge. Pythagoras of Samos, 
born 605 B. C, was the founder of the mathe- 
matical sect of the Italian philosophy. Pythag- 
oras believed that between the fleeting and the 
changeable in the universe there is some perma- 
nent principle of unity. That principle with him 
was number. He may have used number in the 
symbolical sense. Pythagoras was a great lover 
of order. In number he comprehended order, 
proportion, and the relation of things. Per- 
menides, of Elis, born B. C. 536, was the true 
representative of the psychological sect of the 
Italian school. He was the first to distinguish 
between truth and opinion; between ideas 
through reason and sense perception. As the 
Ionic school recognized no knowledge except 
that given by the senses, the Italian school 
went to the opposite extreme, and ignore:! that 



CULTURA. 403 

knowledge which specially pertains to the senses. 
When the sophist contemplated the extreme 
tendencies of the schools, he concluded that they 
were both wrong, and he speculated until finally 
he reached a universal skepticism. Neither the 
realism of the Ionic nor the idealism of the 
Italian school could satisfy his restless mind. He 
was not able to find the golden mean by which 
they could be reconciled; hence his skepticism. 
We have now passed the first cycle of philoso- 
phy. It teaches us clearly the tendencies of the 
human mind. There are but few, even among 
philosophers, who do not, in their efforts to es- 
cape Scylla, go into the very vortex of Charyb- 
dis. The Ionian and Italian schools started in 
opposite directions, like the Amazon and the 
La Plata ; and they swept on until the one 
landed in absolute materialism, and the other in 
absolute idealism. Is it not now clear that phil- 
osophy must take another start ? This it does 
in Socrates. Socrates agreed with the sophists in 
making man a special study; but he differed 
from them in directing his attention to knowl- 
edge and virtue, instead of directing it to per- 
ception, opinion, and egotistical desire. Socrates 



404 CULTURA. 

was the first to introduce induction and definition 
into philosophy. He did this with amazing 
skill. The great martyr-philosopher was no 
writer ; he was simply a teacher, and his teachings 
were very intimately connected with his life. We 
must depend on Plato, the greatest of his disciples, 
for a full and complete development of the many 
sides of the Socratic spirit. What we have writ- 
ten we regard as an essential introduction to a 
proper explanation of the Platonic philosophy, 
and its preparation for and influence upon Chris- 
tianity. 

THE LIFE OF PLATO. 

Plato, in many respects the greatest of Greek 
philosophers, was born in the city of Athens, 
about 429 B. C, and died about 348 B. C. His 
father, Ariston, could trace his ancestry to 
Codrus, and his mother, Perictione, was a decend- 
ent of the celebrated lawgiver, Solon. His 
original name was Aristocles, derived from his 
grandmother; but was changed to Plato, from 
the Greek platus, which means broad ; either on 
account of the breadth of his shoulders, his fore- 
head, or the greatness of his diction. It is said 
that, when he was a child, bees settled on his lips, 



CULTURA. 405 

which was thought to betoken the honeyed 
sweetness of his style. His writings are all in 
the middle Attic, the purest and richest dialect 
of the most perfect and classic language among 
all the members in the great Indo-European 
family of languages. Plato was born the very 
year of the death of Pericles, the second year of 
the Peloponnesian war, which was so fatal to the 
fortunes of the Athenians. It appears somewhat 
strange that a youth with the surroundings of 
Plato, and in the age in which he lived, would 
select the seclusion of a philosophic life, rather 
than the fortunes of political honor. Political 
distinctions lay open before him, for Critias, one 
of the thirty tyrants, was the cousin of his 
mother, and Charmides, who met his death under 
the oligarchic rule of Athens, was his uncle. 
The greatness of his soul is shown in the fact 
that he was willing to give up all for the study 
of philosophy. The sacrifice that he made in 
that age of the world might be compared to the 
man who will give up every thing for that 
religion which solves the greatest problem of the 
universe. Plato's education was excellent. In 
gymnastics he was sufficiently trained to contend 



406 CULTURA. 

at the Pythian and Isthmian games. Like a 
true Greek, he attached great importance to calis- 
thenics, as doing for the body what dialectics 
does for the mind; but he did not, like some 
modern students, let corporal exercises entirely 
absorb his mind. He assiduously devoted him- 
self to the study of music, poetry and rhetoric. 
He wrote an epic poem, but is said to have 
burned it in despair when he compared it with 
the poems of Homer. His tragedies were burned 
when he became acquainted with Sophocles. 
Some of his epigrams have been preserved. One 
of them reads thus : " Thou gazest on the stars, 
my life ; ah, gladly would I be yon starry skies 
with thousand eyes, that T might gaze on thee." 
Before meeting Socrates, Plato had given con- 
siderable attention to the study of philosophy. 
He had been acquainted with the doctrines of 
Heraclitus, and the study of Anaxagoras had 
given him a knowledge of pre-Socratic physics. 
At twenty years of age Plato came to Socrates; 
and with that great master he spent eight years. 
In fact, he continued with Socrates until the 
martyrdom of the great philosopher. Plato ap- 
pears to have comprehended better than any 



CULTURA. 407 

other man the true Socratic method and spirit. 
While others represented one-sided views of the 
Socratic philosophy, Plato presents it in all of 
its fullness. When he first came to Socrates, he 
was skeptical. The philosophy of his age was 
not sufficient to satisfy such a gigantic mind. In 
the school of Socrates he found breathing room, 
and got rid of his doubts by seeking more truth. 
Socrates directed his attention to the study of 
ethics, and in that department he became the 
most distinguished philosopher of the worid. 
Much of the reputation of Socrates was due to 
Plato ; for he placed his own greater developed 
philosophical system in the mouth of the master. 
Socrates is made the center of his dialogues, and 
the leader of all his discourses. There is in 
reality more of Plato in them than there is of 
Socrates. If Socrates was the greater saint, 
Plato was the greater genius. Immortal Plato, 
thou reverend sage, the greatest of any age. 
After the death of Socrates, Plato spent about 
ten years in travel. He first went to Megara, 
where he associated himself with Euclid, a 
former fellow student, and the founder of the 
Megaric school. Up to this time he was a pure 



408 CULTURA. 

Socratist ; but now he endeavors to engraft the 
Socratic ethics upon the Eleatic idealistic philos- 
ophy. His residence at Megara evidently had a 
great influence upon his philosophy, especially 
upon the elaboration and confirmation of his doc- 
trine of ideas. In the Grecian cities of lo vver Italy, 
Plato became better acquainted with Pythago- 
rean philosophy ; and this was possibly the cause 
of his great fondness for mathematical physics. 
Plato sojourned for a time in Egypt; and some 
think that he visited Palestine, Babylon, Persia 
and India. There are traces of his Egyptian 
travels in some of his religious ideas, to which 
we will call attentiou hereafter. While some 
ancient writers have placed too much stress upon 
the influence of the Orient upon the Platonic 
philosophy, there are some recent writers who 
are not willing to admit the evident influence 
of Egypt upon the philosophy of Plato. This 
eminent philosopher did not spend all his time 
in Egypt for nothing. Like Moses, he received 
great benefit from the learning of the Egyptians. 
With what pleasure, we imagine, Plato must have 
spent his time, with the great men of the eso- 
teric schools in ancient Egypt. What great 



CULTURA. 409 

stores of learning, that once belonged to the 
country of the pyramids, are now lost. It per- 
ished beneath the feet of the ruthless Moham- 
medan invaders. After the many years spent in 
travel, Plato returned to his native Athens, 
where he taught in a garden near the academy. 
He was now forty years old. What a contrast 
between his preparation for a life work, and the 
preparation now made by young men for the 
learned professions. His lectures were very 
largely attended, for his preparation had been 
great, and he was the wisest of men. There was 
so much interest taken in his teaching, that even 
women, disguised as men, attended his lectures. 
The cosmogony of Plato is expounded mostly 
from a Pythagorean standpoint, and did not 
rise, even in the mind of Plato, above the level 
of a reasonable conjecture. He maintained that 
the world was originated, and did not exist from 
eternity ; that it was at first in a chaotic state, 
and was framed from the model of a perfect 
archetypal world, out of a formless mass. While 
he believed in the creation of the world, he also 
thought that matter, in some sense, had existed 
with God from eternity. He could not rise to 



410 CULTURA. 

the Biblical idea of the creation of the world out 
of nothing, except the substance of Jehovah^s own 
being. He clearly taught the spherical shape of 
the world, and that it is in motion. He was not a 
pessimist ; but he conceived the world as the image 
of the good and the work of divine munificence. 
Plato taught that the world has a soul as well as 
body, he compared it to a large animal. His 
reasoning on this subject is very fanciful, and it 
can not in any sense be made of practical value. 
In the divisions of the Platonic philosophy, the 
religious ideas of Plato are comprehended in the 
department of physics. Plato taught that man 
has three souls; first, the rational soul, whose 
seat is in the head ; second, the courageous soul ; 
third, the appetitive soul, which seeks sensual 
pleasures. In the Linnaeus, Plato only argues 
for the immortality of the rational soul. In favor 
of its immortality he presents some very strong 
arguments in the Phsedo: (1) from the princi- 
ple that contraries spring from contraries, death 
from life, and consequently life from death, 

(2) from the soul's independence of the body, 

(3) from its nature, which renders it incapable 
of dissolution, (4) from its superiority to the 



CULTURA. 411 

body, (5) God does not will the destruction of 
that which he has put together in such a beauti- 
ful manner, and endowed with such high aspira- 
tions. Modern philosophers can present no 
stronger arguments in favor of the immortality 
of the soul than those contained in the Phsedo 
of Plato. A number of theories have been de- 
rived from the religious and philosophical teach- 
ings of Plato, which we will endeavor to bring 
out when we come to tlie direct influence of the 
Platonic philosophy upon Christianity. 

THE DIALECTICS OF PLATO. 

The Platonic philosophy centers in Plato's 
theory of ideas. There has been much discus- 
sion among realists and idealists as to Plato ^s 
true position in philosophy. He has been 
claimed by both parties, but neither party can 
fully justify its claims. Plato was too great a 
man to adopt eith r one or the other extreme. 
We can say for the three greatest Greek philos- 
ophers — Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle — that 
they did not go to the extreme of either real- 
ism or idealism. We can not question the fact 
that the disciples of Plato had a tendency to 



412 CULTURA. 

idealism, and the disciples of Aristotle to real- 
ism ; but the masters were able to steer clear of 
these breakers. In modern times the philoso- 
phy of John Locke has been carried into ma- 
terialism, but that great philosopher was far 
from being a materialist. He did not teach that 
sensation is the only source of ideas, but placed 
great emphasis upon reflection. The Platonic 
idea was the pure archetypal essence of things. 
Plato meant by id^a about the same that mod- 
ern philosophers mean by the term concept. 
The great idea or type of things originated with 
God ; that was, of course, a perfect model. 
Jehovah made everything according to 
a plan — that is, according to an idea. Man, 
in the image of God, also works after plans 
or ideas. Jesus Christ, who was manifest- 
ed in the flesh, fulfilled the types or 
ideas of the Old Testament. To my mind 
there is something beautiful in the Platonic 
doctrine of ideas. Realists have to pervert 
Plato's teachings in order to get any support 
from him for their claims. Plato had learned 
from Socrates the important principle that the 
criterion of truth must no longer be sought 



CULTUEA. 413 

amid the ever-changing phenomena of the sensi- 
sible world. The philosophers of the Ionian 
school had undertaken this, and ended in fail- 
ure and defeat. It must, therefore, be sought 
in the intelligible world, and not in opinions 
founded on sensation. In other words, it must 
be looked for from within. Whatever superiority 
the philosophy of this age can claim over the 
materialism of the past is due to its adherence 
to the principles and method of Plato. No 
philosopher of modern limes can describe more 
graphically than did Plato the faculties of the 
human mind. He placed proper emphasis upon 
\ self-consciousness, without which we can know 
nothing. Deny its authority, and science as 
well as philosophy would be a farce. Plato rec- 
ognized two general faculties — the faculty of 
apprehending necessary truths, and the faculty 
of perceiving sensible objects. He made several 
subdivisions of these, of which it is not neces- 
sary to speak. The dialectics of Plato is an ef- 
fort to lead the mind back to those ideas which 
he believed had been learned in eternity. He 
claimed that they were in the memory, but had 
been lost to consciousness. 



414 CULTURA. 

Plato represents Socrates as experimenting 
with a slave of Meno, and that he had drawn out 
of the youth a knowledge of mathematical 
truths which the boy had had no opportunity of 
learning. While this does not prove a preexist- 
ent state; it does prove that there are principles 
in the human person not derived from sensation. 
While experience furnishes the occasion for the 
development of these principles, they logically 
existed in the mind before experience. The di- 
alectics of Plato was an analytical and inductive 
method. Modern scientists claim that they have 
an advantage over philosophers and religious 
teachers, in the fact that they use the inductive 
instead of the deductive method. The inductive 
method did not originate with science, but with 
philosophy. Lord Bacon, the great scientist, 
styled the father of the inductive method, ad- 
mits that this method was used by Plato. 
These are his words : "An inductive such as 
will be of advantage for the invention and dem- 
onstration of arts and sciences must distinguish 
the essential nature of things by proper rejections 
and exclusions, and then, after as many of these 
negatives as are sufficient, by comprising above 



CULTURA. 415 

all the positives. Up to this time this has not 
been done, or even attempted, except by Plato 
alone, who, in order to attain his definitions and 
ide as, has used to a certain extent the method of 
induction.'^ (Novum Organum, I., p. 105). The 
difference between the method as used by Bacon 
and the same method as used by Plato, was the 
fact that Bacon conducted it into the world of 
matter, and Plato directed it to the world of 
mind. The final effort of Plato's dialectics was 
to ascend from the ideas of absolute truth, abso- 
lute beauty, absolute goodness, to the absolute 
Being, in whom they all united. He went back 
to the great Father of the universe to find the 
eternal model. The grand object of inquiry 
among the philosophers of ancient Greece was 
to acquire a knowledge of that unchangeable 
Being who is permanent and eternal. There is 
not a thought which does not suggest the notion 
of existence, and there is not an absolute truth 
which does not imply an absolute Being. Plato 
rose above the polytheism of his age to a knowl- 
edge of the existence of a Supreme Being. He 
was doubtless assisted in this by the traditions 
which all the Gentile nations preserved of the 



416 CULTURA. 

one true God. Paul recognized this light 
among the pagans in the following language ; 
" For the invisible things of him from the crea- 
tion of the world are clearly seen, being under- 
stood by the things that are made, even his eter- 
nal power and Godhead, so that they are with- 
out excuse'' (Rom. i. 20). We wish to call 
attention to three arguments used by Plato to 
prove the existence of God : 1. Beneath the 
changeable there is an unchangeable Being, 
who is the nurse and protector of the universe. 
2. Beneath the phenomena of mind there is a 
permanent mind, who is the great rational Be- 
ing, antedating and creating the universe. 3. 
Beyond all finite existence there is an Infinite 
existence, the first principle of all principles, 
the Ruler and Lawgiver of the universe. Pla- 
to taught the absolute perfection of this Infinite 
Being ; that he is the fountain of all law and 
justice, the beginning and end of all things. 
The divine beauty is the formal cause, the di- 
vine power the efficient cause, and the divine 
goodness the final cause of all existences. 



CULTURA. 417 

THE PLATONIC ETHICS. 

Plato taught that justice and equity are 
founded in the very nature of God, hence 
eternal. The true, the beautiful and the good 
were never created, but are inherent in the 
nature of things. The object of revelation is 
to make known to man the true, and the beauti- 
ful, and the good. Eight existed from eternity, 
and philosophy and religion have for their 
object the influence of man in conformity to the 
right. Plato taught that no man willingly does 
evil; that is, that no man does evil for eviPs 
sake. He is very careful to guard this point 
against misunderstanding. While a man may 
choose evil voluntarily as a means, he does not 
choose it as an end. How, then, do men 
become evil ? Plato answers that man is rest- 
less, and seeks change; he indulges his desires 
and passions to excess. He gets tired of the 
good, and tries the bad. Plato alone taught 
that every man has in him the power of chang- 
ing his moral character. He was a believer in 
the freedom of the will. Man was made in the 
image of God, and as God is a free moral agent, 



418 CULTURA. 

man must be. Man has the ability to choose 
the right or the wrong. Plato gives the follow- 
ing reasons why men choose the wrong: 1. The 
soul is connected with the sensible world by 
means of a body, and is influenced to sin. 
2. The passions prevail over the soul, and dis- 
order it. 3. Society is corrupted by bad forms 
of civil government, and bad education effects 
the ruin of the soul. Thus the soul is changed 
and fallen from what it was when it first came 
from the hands of its Creator. The object of 
life is to purify it, and prepare it for a restora- 
tion to its original sinlessness. We are now 
prepared to consider the direct influence of the 
Platonic philosophy upon Christianity. 

PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 

Clemens of Alexandria claims that Greek 
philosophy was to the Greeks what the law was 
to the Jews — a schoolmaster to bring them to 
Christ. The Greeks were endowed with facul- 
ties of a superior order for the special purpose 
of solving, to the extent of human ingenuity, 
the great problems of existence, of knowledge, 
and of duty. As man was fashioned after the 



CULTURA. 419 

divine nature, we must suppose that the pure 
reason of man will have some connection with 
the divine reason. There is in the conscience of 
man a sense of obligation to a supreme power. 
The reason of man has sympathy with the law 
of God. It delights in the law, and consents 
that it is good ; but it is overborne by passion, 
Man wills to do good, but how to perform the 
good he finds not, and in his agony cries out : 
"Oh, wretched man that I am; who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death?" 
(Komans ii. 24). The author of man's nature 
is also the author of the Bible. There must be 
some relation between Christianity and human 
reason, for without reason all religion would be 
useless. While Christianity is above reason, it 
harmonizes with reason and develops it. The 
greater the development of reason, the better it 
is prepared^ for Christianity, provided it has not 
been warped and turned into a wrong channel. 
Christianity did not come to destroy, but to 
fulfill ; and it did recognize and fulfill the truths 
belonging to the Greeks, as well as those which 
specially pertain to the Jews. Had it entirely 
ignored the past, it would have defeated its own 



420 CULTURA. 

end, and practically would have been no reve- 
lation at all. Greek philosophy was a prepara- 
tion for Christianity in the development of a 
scientific and universal language exactly adapted 
to the purposes of Christianity. No student of 
the philosophy of history can fail to perceive the 
providence of God in the preparation of a civili- 
zation and of a language so well adapted to the 
religion of Jesus Christ. The Platonic philoso- 
phy did much toward perfecting the Greek lan- 
guage ; for no Greek ever wrote or spoke purer 
Attic than did the celebrated Plato. The Greek 
tongue became to the Christian more than it 
was even to the Roman and tlie Jew. In Alex- 
andria the Old Testament was translated into 
Greek ; there the writings of Plato were dili- 
gently studied, and Philo endeavored to unite 
the Platonic philosophy with Judaism. From 
this union there arose a class of Jews who, when 
converted to Christianity, were very beneficial 
in allaying the prejudice of the Jewish Chris- 
tians against the Gentiles. Stephen, the first 
martyr, belonged to this class. The Platonic 
philosophy did much toward releasing the popu- 
lar mind from polytheistic notions, which was 



CUL.TURA. 421 

an important preparation for Christianity. By 
the study of nature, and from tradition, Plato 
had reached the conclusion that there existed 
one Supreme Being. His reasoning had a tend- 
ency to undermine and cause the people to 
disbelieve the polytheism of his day. He so 
shaped the theistic argument as to make it 
beneficial even to Christians. Plato developed 
the conscience of his countrymen, and purified 
their ideas of morals. This was all, so far, an 
important preparation for Christianity. The 
philosophy of Plato also made man conscious 
of a distance from God and the need of a medi- 
ator. When Jesus came, there was a longing in 
the human heart f )r the personal presence of 
the Supreme Being. Jesus, who is God mani- 
fested in the flesh, met this demand of man's 
nature. We must regard the Platonic philoso- 
phy as a preparation for Christianity, and not, 
in any sense, a substitute for the gospel. 

THE INFLUENCE OF THE PLATONIC PHILOSOPHY 
UPON THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

Christianity took its origin in a divine and 
perfect leader. This leader towers above even 



422 CULTURA. 

the immortal Plato, as a great mountain towers 
above the sea. It was a false position assumed 
by Origen and others of the Christian fathers, 
that Plato was directly inspired. We have no 
evidence that he had anything more than 
natural inspiration. That he possessed a very 
superior mind, no one can question. He also 
possessed a spirit more universal than that of his 
countrymen; but when we compare this with 
the universal spirit of Jesus Christ, it sinks into 
insignificance. Plato, to an extent, prepared the 
way for Christianity, and nothing more. He 
was only one link in the great providential chain 
guiding to the world^s Redeemer. If he could 
have lived to see perfect divinity in perfect 
humanity, he would evidently have rejoiced in 
such a day. While Plato maintained the true 
philosophical standpoint between the ideal and 
the real, and did not go into either idealism or 
realism, many of his followers became reckless 
in their speculations, and went into an extreme 
idealism. We must not hold Plato responsible 
for everything that has been called Platonism, 
as we can not hold Christ responsible for the 
different theories that have been comprehended 



CULT QUA. 423 

under the general term Christianity. As the 
followers of Aristotle, during the middle ages, 
took positions that the great Stagyrite philoso- 
pher would not have taken, so the new Platonists 
manifested a spirit in the early history of Chris- 
tianity directly opposite to that of the great 
Plato. Such a tendency is not uncommon, for 
before the death of the last apostle there was a 
strong tendency, even in the Christian Church, 
to deparfc from the true Christianity. Paul 
neverwarned Christians against true philosophy, 
but against the false, and against science falsely 
so called. The language of the apostle necessa- 
rily implies that there is true science and true 
philosophy. While pure Platonism possesses the 
true eclectic spirit, the Platonism of Alexandria 
that came into contact with Christianity led to 
an extreme idealism, and from this into mysti- 
cism, and skepticism. The school of divinity at 
Alexandria, headed by Origen, became famous 
for its work in effecting a union between this 
mystical philosophy and Christianity. This 
school employed an allegorical method of inter- 
preting the Bible, which was productive of much 
infidelity. It prepared the way for the mystics 



424 CULTURA. 

of more recent times. Those speculative ideas 
concerning the relation of the Son to the Father 
and to the Holy Spirit, which rent the Church 
a&under, were derived from this school. What 
are now known as liberalis tic ideas, concerning 
future punishment, were also derived from 
Origen. The new Platonist disputed the origin- 
ality of Christianity, claiming that it was derived 
from Plato. Even Mr. Emerson says that 
Christianity is found in the Phsedo of Plato. A 
man must have a great deal of idealism to make 
such a p'dlosophical blunder. Possibly I had 
better say unphilosophical. New Platonism was 
too haughty to acquiesce in that humility of 
knowledge, and in the renunciation of self, 
required by Christianity. As certain as there is 
a pure religion, there is a true philosophy. 

In the history of philosophy the masters have 
generally been correct. You may study the 
great philosophers of both ancient and modern 
times, and as a general thing you will find them 
true to the eclectic spirit. The same is true in 
the history of the Church ; the great writers are 
agreed on the fundamental principles of Christi- 
anity. Let philosophy be true to the method of 



CTJLTURA. 425 

Plato; Christianity, true to the spirit of our 
Lord and Master; then error and superstition 
will be banished from this world, and the king- 
dom of God become completely triumphant. 



©HAPJFBI^ II. 

The Aristotelian Philosophy and 
Christianity. 

In the history of Greek philosophy, Socrates 
was the man of action, Plato the man of litera- 
ture, and Aristotle the man of science. They 
were of course all philosophers, but in the pro- 
gress of culture they specially represented the 
phases mentioned. Socrates went about as a 
preacher of righteousness to all; Plato handled 
language so artistically as so become a general 
favorite; but Aristotle came with the dissecting 
knife in his hand, and addressed himself to those 
who were willing to make special dissections for 
the sake of knowledge. He was preeminently a 
man of science, and has left us the means of 
expressing, many of our ordinary thoughts. 
When we say that a man is in an unfortunate 
predicament, we are using the nomenclature of 
Aristotle. Had it not been for this great Greek 
thinker, modern scientists would be compelled to 
express many of their thoughts differently. 

426 



CULTTJRA. 427 

Aristotle, the greatest of the world's scientific 
men, was born in Stagira, a Greek colony of 
Macedonia, in 384 B. C. , and died at Chalcis, 
on the Island of Euboea, in 322. The name of 
his birthplace clung to him in the title by which 
he was always called — the Stagirite philosopher. 
The father of this great philosopher was a physi- 
cian at the court of the Macedonian king. This 
is thought to have exercised a great influence 
over the studies of his illustrious son. The boy's 
thirst for knowledge was such that at the early 
age of seventeen he repaired to the city of 
Athens, at that time the university of the world, 
and became a pupil of the distinguished Plato. 
His progress was such that Plato called him the 
intellect of the school. He remained a student 
of this great school for twenty years, and might 
have remained longer had it not been for the 
death of Plato. This ought to be a lesson for 
those who claim to acquire a university educa- 
tion in three or four years. While Aristotle 
greatly loved his world- renowned teacher, his 
mental characteristics greatly differed from those 
of Plato. Plato was poetic and ideal, Aristotle 
was prosaic and systematic ; Plato was intuitive 



428 CULTURA. 

and synthetical, Aristotle was logical and analyti- 
cal. Such are some of the mental characteristics 
of the two men, and it is natural to suppose that 
Aristotle would develop a new system, and give 
a different direction to philosophic thought. 

About the year 343 B. C, Philip of Mace- 
don invited Aristotle to become the teacher of 
his son Alexander, who was then thirteen years 
of age. His influence over Alexander was very 
great, and when the son of Philip became the 
conqueror of Asia, Aristotle was invited to 
accompany him upon several of his expedi- 
tions. Whenever Alexander found anything he 
thought would be of scientific interest to his 
great teacher, he immediately sent it. He is 
said also to have presented Aristotle with great 
sums of money with which to prosecute his in- 
vestigations. About the year 335 B. C, Aris- 
totle returned to Athens, and established a new 
school of philosophy. In the forenoon he 
taught his esoteric class in the deep mysteries of 
philosophy, and the afternoon he gave to the in- 
struction of those not so far advanced. His 
school has acquired the name of peripatetic, on 
account of his habit of walking while he was 



CULTTJRA. 429 

giving instruction. He continued to teach un- 
til the Athenians, suspecting him of partisan- 
ship for Macedonia, caused him to flee to 
Chalcis, where he died. In the Aristotelian or- 
ganon we have exactly the reverse of the Pla- 
tonic. Plato by logical analysis drew from the 
depth of consciousness certain fundamental ideas 
inherent in the mind. These he takes as start- 
ing points from which to pass beyond the sensi- 
ble world to God himself After having at- 
tained to universal and necessary ideas by ab- 
straction, he descends to the sensible world, and 
from these ideas he constructs his intellectual 
theory of the universe. Aristotle reverses the 
process ; he commences with sensation, and pro- 
ceeds by induction from the known to the un- 
known. According to Aristotle, the repetition of 
sensations produces a recollection, recollection 
produces experience, and experience produces 
science. It is only by means of experience that 
men can be scientists and artists. While exper- 
ience is the knowledge of individual things, art 
is the knowledge of universals. Aristotle 
taught that there are principles in the mind not 
derived from experience, and his teachings en 



430 CULTURA. 

the subject are much more philosophic and 
truthful than the one-sided views of modern 
utilitarians. Aristotle was the founder of logic, 
and according to Kant and Hegel, the most dis- 
tinguished of German philosophers, it has made 
no progress from that time to the present. 
What he undertook he made thorough, and it 
appears that logic was about perfect when it 
came from his productive brain. He invented 
the categories, and limited their number to ten ; 
and he also devised the syllogistics, the science 
of forming correct conclusions. Our great au- 
thor is also the father of modern psychology, 
and his psychological system should be carefully 
studied by all who desire to fully understand 
his philosophical position. From the fact that 
he claims that all knowledge begins with indi- 
vidual objects, and these objects are objects of 
sense, modern sensationalists are disposed to 
place him at the head of their school. They 
are, however, unfair in this, for Aristotle cer- 
tainly taught that every science has fundamen- 
tal principles that can not be proved, and de- 
pend not upon experience. He employed the 
terms sensation and experience in a very differ- 



CULTUEA. 431 

ent seDse from that in which they are employed 
by modern materialists. He uses sensation in 
its lowest sense as the excitation of the soul 
through the body ; and, in its highest sense, he 
makes it synonymous with intuition, and com- 
prehends all immediate intuitive perceptions, 
whether of sense, consciousness, or reason. In- 
telligence proper, the faculty of first principles, 
is, in some respects, a sense, for it is the source 
of certain truths which, like the perceptions of 
the senses, are immediately revealed as facts, to 
be accepted upon their own evidence. It is 
about the same as the " sensus communis " of Cic- 
ero, and the " common sense '^ of the Scottish 
school. John Locke uses the term " reflection " 
in precisely the sense in which Aristotle uses 
the word " experience.'' The reasoning of Aris- 
totle on the question of causation is perfectly 
marvelous, and his theology is certainly an im- 
portant preparation for Christianity. He re- 
duced his material, formal, efficient, and final 
causes to matter and form. Matter at first has 
potential existence, and is without form. It 
can be brought into shape only by the Eternal 
Substance, who alone has pure form. The Eter- 



432 CULTURA. 

nal Substance was with Aristotle God himself; 
so the universe could not have had its present 
form without the omnipotent power of God. 
Aristotle understood that matter could not 
move itself, and placed back of it an eternal 
actuality. As matter could not move itself, 
the actuality which moved it was of course not 
matter, and therefore spirit. Modern theology 
is very largely founded upon the ontological, 
cosmological, and moral proofs given by Aris- 
totle of the existence of one true God. 

While Aristotle was the greatest of scientists, 
he was also a practical man. The Greek mind 
was eminently practical. If this great thinker 
had, like so many learned Germans, shut him- 
self up in his library or laboratory, instead of 
walking out into the realm of common life, he 
would never have wielded such a powerful influ- 
ence upon mankind in general. In his works 
on ethics and politics, he lias entered into com- 
petition with Socrates and Plato as a teacher in 
social morals and a guide in civil affairs. 
Many persons oppose those baseless methods of 
speculation in his day, which stood in the way 
of truth, and claimed for their unfruitful meth- 



CULTURA. 433 

ods the authority of Aristotle. They are, how- 
ever, wrong in supposing that Aristotle evei 
taught anything of the kind, or that Aristotle 
failed to use induction in his reasoning. Good 
old Martin Luther raved against Aristotle, but 
it was no more the true Aristotle than the pope 
of Rome was the first apostle. It was doubtless 
necessary for the false Aristotle to be driven 
away before the true one could take his proper 
place. While the French revolution shook up 
things in general, it set men to thinking, and 
prepared the way for the restoration of both 
Plato and Aristotle to their true position in the 
history of ethics. 

It has been said, to the praise of Aristotle, 
that his system of ethics contains nothing that a 
Christian can afford to dispense with, no precept 
of life which is not an element of Christian 
character, and that its teachings fail only in ele- 
vating the heart and the mind to objects of 
divine revelation. Our great author properly 
emphasizes the influence of habit upon life, and 
it is certain that habit has a good deal to do 
with religion. If certain evil habits are ac- 
quired, it is very difficult to nrnke a man reli- 



434 CULTURA. 

gious. What is true happiness for man ? Aris- 
totle would make it the full satisfaction of the 
highest elements of his nature. There has been 
a good deal of discussion about the golden mean 
taught by Aristotle. It must be remembered 
that Aristotle's view was thoroughly Greek, 
and based on the analogy of art. When a 
Greek would speak of right or wrong, he would 
speak of it as beautiful or ugly. The object of 
the Greek was to avoid the too much and too 
little, and in this way to attain to perfection. 
Temperance was the mean between greediness 
and indifference, and liberality was the mean 
between prodigality and stinginess. While the 
Aristotelian system of ethics was by no means 
perfect, it was certainly an important prep- 
aration for that system which is absolutely 
perfect. Christianity presents the perfect ideal, 
which can make this world a paradise. It 
appears to me that the great mistake with 
modern utilitarians is the fact that they have 
ignored the past. Hume, Bentham, and James 
Mill persistently ignore the great truths handed 
down for the use of all ages by the master 
minds of antiquity. The disciples of Bentham 



CULTITRA. 435 

claim that his discovery of the principle of 
utility was as great an era in moral science as 
was the discovery of the principles of gravita- 
tion in physical science. The word utility is 
not distinctive to this school, for it had been 
appropriated more than a thousand years before 
the days of Bentham, and everything valuable 
in Bentham's theory had been taught by others. 
The school that now calls itself Utilitarian is 
thoroughly materialistic. It denies the moral 
virtue of the inner soul, and it is a system of 
externalism. A school-boy who has never seen 
a mountain looks upon a hill as very high; so 
persons may look upon modern utilitarians as 
giants in thought until they become acquainted 
with Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. 



(^HAPTEI^ III. 

The Lockian Philosophy and 
Christianity. 

John Locke, the wisest of Englishmen, was 
born in 1632, and died in 1704. There is not 
much known of his family, except that his father 
was a soldier in the Parliamentary army. This 
fact is significant, as it gives us an idea of the 
surroundings of the boy, and the early influ- 
ences that would necessarily impress themselves 
upon his mind. During the reign of Puri- 
tanism in England, he imbibed the spirit of 
liberty which was characteristic of that body of 
men. All the education he received until he 
was fourteen years old was at his Puritan 
home. 

He entered Westminster school in 1646, 
which was under the control of the Puritans, 
and a central point in the revolutionary move- 
ment. About six years were spent in this insti- 
tution of learning. He does not seem to have 
liked this school ; and its memories are thought 

436 



CULTURA. 437 

to have prejudiced his mind against public 
schools in his " Thoughts on Education." 

In 1652 Locke entered Christchurch College, 
Oxford. John Owen, a Puritan, was dean of 
the college, and vice-chancellor of the univer- 
sity. Locke took both the degrees of A. B. and 
A. M., and made Oxford his home much of the 
time for thirty years. Afterward the philoso- 
pher regretted having spent so much time at 
Oxford. That university too much represented 
the past for such an original mind as was that 
of Locke. It was the center of scholasticism, 
and this system of philosophy was very obnox- 
ious to the young philosopher, who was devoted 
to the Baconian method. He was so opposed 
to the university methods of his day that he 
went to the other extreme, and concluded that 
self-education was the best. There is both 
truth and error in his position. It is, of 
course, true that all great men must largely be 
self-taught; but they must have opportunities, 
and the university system affords the best 
opportunities. Like other things, university 
education has greatly improved since the days 
of Locke. 



438 CULTURA. 

Locke became so disgusted with the disputes 
carried on in the name of philosophy, that he 
devoted much of his time while at Oxford to 
medicine. While he never practiced medicine 
nor took a degree, he was always much inter- 
ested in medical science. He became an expert 
in the study of disease, as was testified to by 
Dr. Sydenham and Lord Shaftesbury. 

Locke early showed an interest in politics as 
well as in medicine and theology. He went on 
a visit to Holland, and was delighted with the 
liberty-loving spirit of the inhabitants of that 
country. He thought that the uninviting terri- 
tory of Holland was fully compensated for by 
the blessings the people there enjoyed under a 
government peculiarly favorable to civil and 
religious liberty. On this trip he also visited 
Germany and France, and made the acquaint- 
ance of some of the most distinguished men in 
Europe. 

In 1667 the philosopher left Oxford, and 
went with Lord Ashley to London. This dis- 
tinguished man had been suifering from an 
abscess in the chest, and was cured of this fear- 
fill disorder through the skill of Locke. A 



CULTURA. 439 

lasting friendship was formed between them, 
and the philosopher shared in the fortunes 
and misfortunes of the distinguished politician. 
Lord Ashley afterward became earl of Shaftes- 
bury, and through his influence Locke was 
introduced to nearly all the great thinkers of 
his age. The earl, with some others, had been 
granted the province of North Carolina, and 
the philosopher was employed to draw up the 
fundamental laws of the province. The scheme 
of government drawn up by Locke shows the 
cautious and practical tendencies of his mind. 
While it was aristocratic, and conformed to 
monarchy, yet it tolerated all religions, and 
favored liberty — so far, at least, as it had pro- 
gressed in England. 

Locke joined the Royal Society, but seldom 
attended its meetings, as his custom was to 
encourage small reunions of personal friends. 
About the year 1671 he and his friends, while 
discussing questions of morality and religion, 
came to a standstill on the question of the 
limits of man^s power to know the universe. 
When he commenced work on this question, he 
thought that he could solve it on one sheet of 



440 CULTURA. 

paper; but he worked on it at intervals for 
twenty years, and finally gave to the world his 
famous Essay on the Human Understanding. 
This was the great work of his life, and it 
gives unity to his wonderful career. 

The fall of Shaftesbury, in 1675, separated 
Locke from English politics for four years, and 
enabled him to prosecute his investigations on 
the continent. In 1679 Shaftesbury returned to 
power, and Locke returned to England. Shaftes- 
bury again lost his power, went to Holland, and 
died at Amsterdam in 1683. Locke returned to 
Holland in voluntary exile. It was the asylum 
of many eminent persons who were denied civil 
and religious liberty in their own countries. 
This was our philosopher's home for more than 
five years, and he was carefully watched by the 
English government, and was in constant danger 
of arrest. He was, however, so prudent that 
his enemies could not make much headway 
against him. 

In 1688 William of Orange landed in England, 
and the following year Locke returned to his 
native land in the same ship that brought the 
Princess of Orange to England. It was in 1690 



( 



CULTURA. 441 

that his famous essay was published; and it 
attracted almost universal attention. I do not 
suppose that any other philosophical work has 
ever been more popular. While the essay was 
his greatest work, he wrote valua'de treatises on 
education, politics, and religion. 

Locke's asthma and other troubles so increased 
that in the latter part of 1690 he was compelled 
to leave London. He found a home at Oates, 
twenty miles from London, the country seat of 
Sir Francis Masham. Lady Masham was the 
accomplished daughter of Cudworth, Locke's 
special friend. The philosopher spent fourteen 
years at this pleasant home, and was visited by 
Sir Isaac Newton and other distinguished men. 
Locke died in 1704, while sitting in his chair, 
listening to Lady Masham read the book of 
Psalms. 

1. Locke has been called the founder of 
modern materialism, and the popularizer of 
Hobbes. In this he has been greatly misrepre- 
sented for there are but few points in which he 
agrees with Hobbes. He is one of tVie most origi- 
nal of philosophers; and to claim that he is 
simply an imitator of Hobbes shows either 



442 CULTURA. 

prejudice or ignorance on the part of his critics. 
It would be much more correct to call him a 
follower of Bacon than a follower of Hobbes ; for 
he was the first to apply the Baconian method to 
psychology. 

The following maxim is the psychology of 
Hobbes, and not the psychology of Locke: 
Nihil est intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu. 
/Locke did not claim that sensation is the only 
/ source of our knowledge, but that there is another 
source which he called reflection. Leibnitz has 
been highly praised for adding to the old adage 
of Nihil est intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu, 
nisi ipse intellectus. Locke never did accept the 
adage as constituting the whole truth ; but added 
reflection as the second source of knowledge. 
The addition by Leibnitz, when critically 
analyzed, becomes an absurdity. It would be 
expressed thus : There is nothing in the intellect 
that is not first in sensation, except the intellect 
in the intellect. It would not be more absurd to 
say, I have no food in my stomach except my 
stomach itself. The meaning of the German 
critic was doubtless correct ; but there is no more 
in it than we find in the following words of 



C7ULTURA. 443 

Locke : " External objects furnish the mind with 
ideas of sensible qualities ; and the mind furnishes 

(the understanding with the ideas of its own opera- 
tions/' 

In the early part of the eighteenth century, 
Locke's essay was translated into French ; but it 
was not much read until highly recommended by 
Voltaire after his return from England. Condil- 
lac, in his Traite des SensationSy only accepted one 
half of the philosophy of Locke, and tried to 
reduce all the inlets of knowledge to one, and 
thus founded the modern sensational school 
which prevailed in France to the beginning of 
the present century. Locke's German critics 
obtained their information from the French, and 
thus misrepresented his position. From their 
writings above, you would reach the conclusion 
that Locke was the founder of the modern 
sensational school. 

Gondii lac reasoned that as reflection had no 
innate idea, and could not create anything of 
itself, and that everything previous to reflection 
was obtained through sensation, so all we 
have after can only be transformed sensations. 
Locke may not always have been consistent, but 



444 CULTURA. 

^ it is certain that reflection with him was a source 
(^ of knowledge entirely above the bodily senses. 
He claimed that the mind obtained ideas from 
its own actings as well as those it derived from 
the senses. Study carefully the following lan- 
guage of the great philosopher : " The mind 
furnishes the understanding with ideas of its own 
operations.'^ (ii. 1). 

2. Locke was not an idealist, but a detc rmined 
realist. I do not say that he was always con- 
sistent, but such was certainly his position. It 
is not surprising, however, that Berkeley misun- 
derstood him ; for his theory in many respects 
seems to point to idealism. He constantly 
speaks of ideas, and claims that they are the ob- 
jects of the understanding when it thinks. This 
seems to indicate that the object about which a 
man thinks is in the mind itself. His theory cf 
ideas w-s in the way of his clearly perceiving 
the truth. Instead of maintaining that the 
mind looks directly at things, he claimed that it 
looked at tilings only throughjdeas. He very 
much identified ideas and things. Berkeley 
dwelt upon those passages in Locke which 
seem to favor idealism ; and became himself a 



CtJLTURA. 445 

very extreme idealist. It is said that lie once 
struck his head against an object which did not 
feel well; at least to the head, and was asked if 
the ohject really had an existence. His reply 
was, " Only jn the mind." Berkeley denied the 
existence of the external world ; and Hume then 
stepped in, and denied also the existence of the 
internal. The Scottish school next stepped in, 
and met the skeptic. This school has done 
much for philosophy, but was too vacillating in 
its efforts to make our knowledge of things di- 
rect. Even Hamilton made our knowledge of 
things only relative instead of positive. 

In spite of the mistakes in his theory, Locke 
was a realist, and not an idealist. He had a 
way of reaching reality out of the mind. The 
power to produce any idea in our mind he 
called the quality of the object wherein that 
power was. He speaks of primary and secondary 
qualities, and insists that the qualities imply the 
existence of the object. He seems to have rea- 
soned from cause to effect. This may not be 
consistent with Locke's experimental system ; 
but it was his way of reaching reality in the ex- 
ternal world. When he did reach reality, he 



446 CULTURA. 

held to it with a firm grasp ; and maintained 
that the mind looks directly to things. Dr. 
McCosh calls especial attention to this position 

\ in the theory of Locke ; and pronounces him 
far superior to Kant in his theory in reference to 
a knowledge of the external world. 

3. Locke was not a rationalist in the sense in 
which that word is generally used. When we 
speak of rationalism, we mean that system 
which exalts reason above faith ; and when the 
Bible teaches anything not supposed to harmo- 
nize with reason, it is immediately rejected. 
Such was not the position of Locke. He main- 

/ tained that some things might be above reason ; 
and was willing to accept them when they 
clearly had the authority of God. What more 
could be asked of any philosopher ? 

Locke was a great thinker, and could not be 
expected to accept religious doctrines contrary to 
reason. He was bitterly opposed to mysticism 
in all of its forms ; and he certainly lifted relig- 
ious thought to a higher plane. He believed in 
the Christianity of the Bible, and was much 
opposed to the absurd theological speculations of 
his day. Henry Rogers, in his Essays, and 



CULTURA. 447 

Prof BowGD, in his Philosophie Discussions, 
have shown the high position taken by Locke in 
reference to the human understanding and the 
great truths he defended. Locke was not, then, 
a rationalist in the sense of opposing any of the 
great truths of the Bible ; but he was a ration- 
alist in his opposition to many of the supersti- 
tions of his day. 

4. Locke was an experientialist. He com- 
pared the mind to white paper, void of all 
characters, without any ideas, until developed 
by experitnce. Dr. McCosh has called attention 
to the ambiguity in the use of this word. It 
sometimes means individual experience, as the 
experience of anticipatiug the cause from the 
effect. In this sense all intuitions, all a priori 
principles, fall within our conscious experience. 
Experience is generally used in philosophy for 
a general law deduced from a number of exper-\ 
iences. Locke does not seem to have observed l 
this difference. 

Locke denied all innate ideas, and consider- 
ing the views entertained on the subject in his 
day, he did a valuable service for philosophy. 
He was certainly right in maintaining that man 



448 CtJLTURA. 

was not born with a set of ideas ready to come 
forth at any time. The mind is not an original 
repository of abstract and general notions ; but 
these are formed out of particular instances by 
the exercise of the faculties. 

It is claimed that Locke's physiognomy indi- 
cated extreme tendencies; and there are cer- 
tainly extreme tendencies in his philosophy. 
While he exposed errors in reference to innate 
ideas, he went too far. Even a blank piece of 
paper, while it has no characters, certainly 
does have properties without which we could 
not write on it. Leibnitz makes a much better 
comparison than that of a sheet of paper; he 
compares the mind to marble with veins in it, 
fitting it to become a statue of Hercules. " It 
has," says he, "inclinations, dispositions, habi- 
tudes, and natural virtualities." Even Locke 
constantly appeals to judgments which the 
mind pronounces at once ; and this shows, even 
according to his own philosophy, that there are 
innate regulating principles in the mind. Kant 
/ greatly improved on Locke on the question of 
' innate principles in the mind. 

5. John Locke was a Christian philosopher. 



CT7LTUKA. 449 

He was not only a believer in the Bible, but 
was a diligent student of its sacred pages. He 
wrote commentaries on some of its books, and 
was a faithful advocate of the fundamental prin- 
ciples of Christianity. A. careful study of the 
writings of Locke would do much towards 
stemming the tide of materialism and atheism, 
which seem now to be rapidly deluging the 
country. 

The arguments of Locke against atheism, and 
his proofs of the existence of God have been 
quoted by the great thinkers from his age to the 
present. He says : " I think it unavoidable for 
every considering rational creature, that will but 
examine his own or any other existence, to have 
the notion of an eternal being who had no be- 
ginning " (ii. 14.) For his proof, he appeals to 
the faculties of the human mind. "We are 
capable of knowing certainly that there is a 
God, though God has given us no innate ideas 
of himself, though he has stamped no original 
characters on our minds wherein we may read 
his being ; yet having furnished us with those 
faculties our minds are endowed with, he hath 
not left himself without a witness, since we 



450 CULTURA. 

have sense, perception, reason, and can not want 
a clear proof of him as long as we carry our- 
selves about us.'* (Book lY. chap. 10, sec. 1.) 
In this way he thought that he could reach the 
eternity of that Infinite Being who must neces- 
sarily have always existed. It was by the exer- 
cise of his faculties that he was able to clothe 
the Divine Being with all his perfections. It 
is needed in this day as well as in the days of 
Locke that all the faculties of the mind be in- 
ductively studied ; so that we may be able to 
understand exactly what is comprehended in 
them. Much has been done by Kant, and by 
the Scotch school ; but there is yet here an im- 
portant field to be explored by the future psy- 
chologist. 



(©HAPTBI^ lU. 

The Kantian Philosophy and Chris- 
tianity. 

Immanuel Kant, the greatest of German phil- 
osophers, was born at Konigsberg, Prussia, in 
1724, and died at the same place in 1804. His 
family were originally Scotch, and spelt the name 
Cant. In order to prevent its mispronunciation, 
the philosopher changed it to Kant. As we shall 
see hereafter, his philosophy, in many respects, 
bore a relationship to the Scottish philosophy. 
The father of the philosopher was a saddler, and 
a man of decided integrity. While his father 
was Scotch, his mother was German ; and 
although a woman somewhat severe and exact- 
ing, she possessed great piety. Her early in- 
fluence upon her illustrious son was certainly 
very great. 

Kant, like Schelling and Hegel, was intended 
for the ministry ; and he did preach a few times. 
His early training was largely under the influence 
of what is called pietism, and it seems to have 

— - 451 



452 CULTURA. 

made an indelible impression upon his mind. 
He was always noted for the highest morality, 
and was a diligent student of the Sermon on the 
Mount. He did not show any special meta- 
physical talent; but had learned something of 
the philosophy of Wolf, which at that time was 
predominant in the schools. 

In 1740 he entered the university as a student 
of theology; but his preaching was attended 
with such poor success that he concluded he 
was destined for a different career, and aban- 
doned the ministry forever. He became much 
attracted to mathematics and physics, and made 
great progress in these branches. His first essay 
was written in 1746, on The True Measure of 
Living Forces ; and it showed evidence of a very 
superior mind. It contained an acute criticism 
of the arguments of Leibnitz and Descartes, with 
an effort to reach the medium ground between 
these philosophers by making a distinction be- 
tween dead and living powers. About this time 
his father died, which destroyed all his hopes of 
remaining at the university until he could secure 
some subordinate academic position. He became 
a tutor in private families, and continued this 



CULTURA. 463 

character of work until 1755. This kind of 
work was much against his inclination, and work 
for which he was not specially suited; yet it 
seems to have benefited him in many respects. 
It gave him a better knowledge of the world and 
a greater fitness for refined society. These ac- 
complishments he ever displayed afterwards to a 
degree very unusual for a philosopher and a 
Jjachelor. 

In 1755 the philosopher was able to enter the 
university of his native town as academic instruc- 
tor ; a position for which he had long been pre- 
paring himself. In the fall of the same year he 
obtained his doctor's degree, and was rapidly be- 
coming one of the great thinkers of Germany. 
This was the age of Frederick the Great, when the 
attention of the world was attracted to the great 
conflict between Prussia and nearly all the other 
European states. Kant wrote an anonymous 
work on the theory of the heavens, and dedicated 
it to Frederick the Great. It was written in a 
clear and animated style, and it would have been 
better if he had written his philosophy in the 
same style. In the above named work he pre- 
dicted the discovery of new planets, and that the 



454 CULTURA. 

nebulae were really composed of stars. He also 
insisted that the mechanical construction of 
nature was not opposed to a belief in God. Kant 
was a popular lecturer, and his lectures on 
natural philosophy attracted much attention. 
In 1757 he commenced his lectures on physical 
geography, and continued them until the close of 
his academic career. He was no traveler, and 
seldom went beyond his native city. Yet he 
was a great student of geography. He was a 
great student of travels, and gained much infor- 
mation from every traveler he could meet. In 
1763 he wrote a prize essay for the Berlin 
Academy on the Principles of Natural Theology 
and Ethics ; but Mendelssolin took the first prize, 
and Kant the accessit prize. Kant continued his 
investigations, became quite a writer, and even 
received calls from other universities before he 
was offered a full professorship in his own uni- 
versity. It takes the people a long time to 
\ recognize greatness when it is found in their own 
midst. 

In 1770 Kant obtained the chair of logic and 
metaphysics in the university of his native 
town, after he had rejected all other calls. His 



CULTURA. 455 

salary was only three hundred dollars per annum. 
Think of it: the greatest philosopher of modern 
times receiving only three hundred dollars per 
year for his work. His Kritik of Pure Reason 
did not appear until 1781, although he had been 
steadily advancing towards it for eleven years. 
All of his later writings are developments of 
and supplements to this great work. Notwith- 
standing the ob^scurity in style and the radical 
character of the Kritik of Pure Eeason, it made 
rapid progress in Germany. In less than twelve 
years from the time of its publication it was ex- 
pounded in all the German universities, and had 
penetrated even into the institutions belonging 
to the Church of Rome. He was almost wor- 
shiped by some, and regarded as an oracle on 
all the great questions of the day. He seemed 
to be unaffected by this homage, and it was not 
until he had reached old age that he looked upon 
his system as the limit of philosophy, and opposed 
all further progress. 

Kant was certainly a great genius, and accom- 
plished as much in his special line of work as 
has ever been accomplished by any other man. 
He was smaU of stature and feeble in appearance. 



456 CULTURA. 

He was not much more than five feet high, with a 
breast almost concave, and, like Schleiermacher, 
deformed in his right shoulder. He had light 
hair, blue eyes, and a high and square forehead. 
While his constitution was weak, he, by carefully 
observing the laws of health, attained to a ripe 
old age. He was regular in his habits, never 
married, and a student till the close of life. It 
is said that he lived until his body dried up and 
blew away. This great philosopher was a rigid 
moralist, and lived up to the very highest 
principles of ethics. He says : " Whoever will 
tell me of a good action left undone, him will I 
thank, though it be in the last hour of life." He 
was not afraid of death, and seemed perfectly 
satisfied in reference to the future. In the last 
hour of life he said : " My friends, I do not fear 
death ; I assure you before God, that if I was 
sure of being called away to-night, I could raise, 
my hands to heaven, and say, God be praised." 
I. The Kantian philosophy divides itself into 
three kritiks, of which the Kritik of Pure 
Reason comes first. It is a fact worthy of con- 
sideration that, although Kant came from the 
Leibnitzian-Wolfian school, he started upon 



CTJLTT7RA. 457 

much the same principle and with the same 
object in view as did Locke. Locke investi- 
gated the powers and limits of the human 
understanding, and the critical philosophy 
searched into the origin of our ideas, and de- 
fined the proper limits of human knowledge. 
Kant had observed the extreme tendencies in 
the philosophic schools of his day, and was 
determined, if possible, to find the golden mean. 
He had studied the writings of Hume, and 
clearly saw that this sensational philosophy 
would undermine the whole system of human 
knowledge if a more certain foundation could 
not be established. The work of Kant in 
Germany was very similar to that of Keid in 
Scotland, and these great philosophers largely 
counteracted the sensational philosophy of the 
eighteenth century. 

1. The Transcendental .^thetics. This 
treats of transcendental knowledge given by 
sense perception. There are two elements in 
all knowledge, matter and form; the one given 
by experience, and the other by the mind. If 
sensations are destitute of ideas, they are blind, 
just as ideas without sensations are empty. The 



458 CULTURA. 

former are ignored by the dogmatist, and the 
latter by the materialist. The mind arranges, 
under the two ideas of space and time, whatever 
is given us in sensation. The ideas of space and 
time are not the products of the sensations, but 
only the regulators. The a priori ideas of space 
and time control even the objects of sense, and 
this knowledge makes the science of mathe- 
matics possible. According to Kant, the intui- 
tions of space and time have no objective rela- 
tions, but only subjective forms. He thus has 
something subjective with all our intuitions, 
and claims that we do not know things as they 
are in themselves, but only as they appear to us 
through this subjective medium of space and 
time. The Kantian principle is that we do not 
know things in themselves, but only phenom- 
ena. Kant, however, insisted upon the reality 
of the external world, and would not admit that 
the world of sense is a mere appearance. He 
objected stoutly to the use made by Fichte of 
his subjective tendency. Kant did not mean to 
deny the reality of ihe external any more than 
that of the internal; but bis making space and 
time merely subjective, introduced an ideal ele- 



CULTURA. 459 

ment into his philosophy, which enabled Fichte 
to make the mind create the objects in space / 
and the occurrences in time. 

2. The Transcendental Analytics. In 
the analytics Kant considers the power of the 
understanding to form general notions. He 
seems to have been led to the consideration of 
this subject by the conclusions of Hume in 
reference to causation. He maintained that the 
idea of cause and effect is derived solely from 
experience, and is, consequently, involved in 
great uncertainty. Kant, in opposition to this 
position, insisted that it was an a priori notion, 
and not derived from experience at all. He 
claimed that it was grounded in the mental 
constitution of man, and whether true or not, 
it remained true to man so long as his under- 
standing continued. These a priori principles 
Kant called the categories of the understanding, 
and he placed great stress upon them. There 
has been much discussion in Germany about 
them, and they have certainly done much to 
advance the science of logic. While Kant held 
that we can not know the external world except 
through these a priori conceptions, still he in- 



460 CULTUBA. 

sisted that these judgments of the understanding 
can not make known to us the supersensible 
world ; that we can not come to a knowledge of 
things as they are in themselves. At the same 
time he positively asserts that things in them- 
selves have a real existence, and opposes the 
idealism of Berkeley. Berkeley claimed that 
we only have a knowledge of ideas, while 
Kant insisted that we not only have a knowl- 
edge of ideas, but ideas of something that is 
real. Berkeley made no distinction between 
phenomena and noumena, but Kant clearly 
distinguishes them. 

3. Tkanscendental Dialectics. Kant 
passed from the senses to the understanding, and 
then from the understanding to reason. This 
great philosopher was nothing if not logical ; but 
still he made his mistakes. Although he studied 
reason so profoundly, he does not seem to make 
any distinction between reason and reasoning. 
Keason perceives certain truths directly, while 
reasoning deduces a conclusion from premises. 
Eeason has to do with three great ideas — the 
soul, the world, and God. These are the bases 
of the three sciences, psychology, cosmology and 



CULTURA. 461 

theology. There are so many limitations placed 
around these ideas that they entangle reason in 
an illusion. Kant is still in search of the ding 
an\sich, the thing-in-itself, but does not seem to 
fully overtake it. According to the dialectics, 
we can not prove the reality of the external 
world, nor the reality and immortality of the 
soul; neither can we prove the existence of 
God. Kant, however, claimed that the skeptic 
could not disprove any of these things. He 
believed in them himself, and felt that what 
was wanting in the pure reason was fully made 
up in the practical reason. 

II. The Keitik of Practical Reason. 
This is evidently the healthiest part of the Kant- 
ian philosophy, and saves it from agnosticism. 
The sphere of the practical reason is the will, 
where reason fully unfolds its power. It is the 
highest spiritual power in man, and is even 
above pure reason. Some of its principles have 
an imperative character, and there the categorical 
imperative, which expresses the most important 
thought in the ethical theory of Kant. This 
implies freedom, for on no other ground is 
moral action possible. It also implies the exist- 



462 CULTUEA. 

ence of God, for otherwise there would be a law 
without a lawgiver, which is an absurdity. It 
further implies a future state, where man's moral 
nature will find its completion. While pure 
reason only shows these things to be possible, 
practical reason shows them to be certain, by 
basing them upon the moral nature of man. 

III. The Kritik op the Faculty of 
Judgment. The object of this faculty is to 
bridge the chasm between the the^etical and the 
practical reason. Just as feeling occupies an in- 
termediate position between reason and will, so 
the faculty of judgment, which pertains to the 
feelings, mediates between the theoretical and 
practical reason. While pure reason contem- 
plates nature, and practical reason contemplates 
freedom, the faculty of judgment unites the 
two by regarding nature as a system of means 
constructed by the highest reason to bring about 
certain ends. Kant analyzes the notions of the 
sublime and beautiful, and develops the princi- 
ple of theology as the offspring of the judg- 
ment. This kritik is valuable on account of its 
lofty thoughts on the question of design in na- 
ture, and it shows a final end to which the 



CULTTJRA. 463 

whole universe is tending. It makes the aes- 
thetic elements in man's nature confirm the 
teaching of the practical reason on the great 
questions of the immortality of man and the 
existence of God. 

Was Kant an idealist ? It is evident to all 
students of philosophy that his system has a 
tendency to idealism. He taught that ihe mind 
does not perceive things, but only forms. In 
this, however, he can not strictly be called an 
idealist, for he claims that the forms have mean- 
ing only as they are applied to objects of possi- 
ble experience. He denied the objective real- 
ity of space and time, which of course had a 
strong idealistic tendency ; but he counteracted 
this by insisting that the mind was affected by 
a world existing independent of it. The ideal 
element in the Kantian philosophy was more 
fully developed by Fichte, greatly to the annoy- 
ance of Kant in his old age. Fichte had been 
a pupil of Kant, and clearly saw the inconsis- 
tencies in his master's sysi^pm. In order to be 
more consistent he accepted simply the ideal ele- 
ment, and very fully developed it. He was 
naturally evolved from the ideal element 



464 CULTUEA. 

in the Kantian philosophy. As Fichte's 
theory seemed to leave out one side of the ac- 
tual world, Schelling took up that side, and en- 
deavored to unite the two in the doctrine of ab- 
solute identity. He pointed out some beautiful 
analogies between the outward world and subjec- 
tive mind. He was an evolution from Fichte. 
This theory appeared too visionary, and not well 
founded upon reason ; so Hegel was evolved to 
build up a system more in harmony with the 
highest reason. 

I can not agree with ^those who pronounced 
Kant and his successors infidels. They were be- 
lievers in God and immortality, and did not re- 
ject Christ and Christianity. I have stated in 
another work that the successors of Kant were 
extreme idealists, and that such idealism has a 
tendency to skepticism. I have no reason to 
take that statement back ; still I feel that some 
of these men were sincere Christians, and had 
no desire to break with Christianity. It was 
only the left wing of the Hegelian philosophy 
that went into infidelity. A careful study of 
Kant and his successors would do much to coun- 
teract the extreme materialism of the present 



CTJLTUEA. 465 

age. German philosophy should be studied 
with care ; but the golden mean is between 
extremes, and the philosophic pendulum is now 
vibrating in the direction of materialism. Some 
idealism is certainly necessary ; and that philos- 
ophy should be treated with great respect 
which produced such poets as Goethe and Schil- 
ler. While we study the ideal, let us not for- 
get the real, for it is ever ready to catch us when 
we fall. 

Was Kant an agnostic ? There are certain- 
ly elements in his system which lead to agnos- 
ticism. The Kritik of Pure Reason seems to 
point in that direction. When it is claimed 
that we can not know things, but only forms, it 
is not difficult to reach the position of the ag- 
nostic. Kant was wrong in the distinction he 
made between pure reason and practical rea- 
son. The distinction is entirely arbitrary, and 
of no benefit in the study of philosophy. Our 
perceptions and reason guarantee reality just as 
much as do our moral nature. While the intel- 
lect does not lead to all truth, if properly guid- 
ed it certainly does conduct us to a certain 
amount of truth. It begins with realities, and 



466 CULTURA. 

constantly adds to them by investigation and 
thought. Instead of conflicting with the moral 
reason, the speculative reason, if properly em- 
ployed, will greatly strengthen it. 

In answer to the question, Was Kant an ag- 
nostic ? I emphatically state that his philosophy, 
taken as a whole, is opposed^ to agnosticism. 
While he taught that reason can not vouch for 
certainty, he claimed that our consciousness is 
veracious, and a true witness to the impressions 
made upon it. If the fundamental ideas of 
morals and religion can not be demonstrated, 
they are a part of man's moral consciousness, 
and must be accepted as certain. While, in his 
Kritik of Pure Eeason, Kant only admitted the 
idea of God as a regulative principle ; in his 
Kritik of Practical Reason he insisted that 
man's moral nature made the existence of a per- 
sonal God motally certain. If the agnostic will 
accept the system of Kant as a whole, he will 
soon see reasons for coming out of the malarial 
swamp of Knownothingism, and soaring towards 
the reality of things unseen. 

The Bible and Christianity were not to Kant 
empty words, but always had with him profound 



CULTURA. 467 

meaning. While the skeptic scoffs, and shows 
his ignorance in the way in which he handles 
the sacred Book, it is gratifying to see that the 
greatest philosopher in modern times always 
handled it with profound respect. The more ,we 
study the masters, the more firmly we will be 
convinced that man's moral nature demands 
God and immortality, the great subjects upon 
which the Bible treats. While there were cer- 
tainly rationalistic tendencies in the Kantian 
philosophy, when it is carefully studied as a 
whole it will not be found out of harmony with 
the Christianity of the Bible. 



Bacon and the Inductive Method. 

Francis Baoon, one of the greatest intellectual 
lights of modern times, was born in London, 
January 22, 1561. Mr. Basil Montagu, Bacon's 
worshiper more than biographer, tries to make 
it appear that Bacon belonged to a very ancient 
and illustrious family. He represents the phil- 
osopher as retiring to the halls of his ancestors ; 
but this does not well harmonize with the fact 
that his grandfather kept the sheep of the abbot 
of Bury. While we can make no special claims 
for the ancestry of the great inductive philoso- 
pher, we do know that his parents were persons 
of decided merit. His father was one of the 
greatest statesmen of his day, and was lord 
keeper of the seals for twenty years during the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth. His mother was a 
woman of high culture, and one of the leading 
Puritans of her day. 

There is not much known of the early life and 
education of Bacon. As his health was very 



CTJLTURA. 469 

delicate, it is quite probable that he received 
most of his early education at home. His mother 
was certainly well prepared to be his teacher. 
He seems to have been a very precocious lad, 
and was early noted for his wit. When Queen 
Elizabeth asked him his age, he replied, '' Two 
years younger than your majesty's happy reign." 
The queen was very fond of him, and called him 
" the young lord keeper. '^ At the age of thirteen 
he was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, where 
he was a student for three years. He seems to 
have been a good student, but thought for him- 
self, and was much opposed to the course of 
study pursued at the university. He afterwards 
published a tract on the deficiencies of universi- 
ties. Whatever may have been his opinion of 
Aristotle, it is certain that he was much opposed 
to the philosophy of the Stagyrite as taught by 
the English universities in the sixteenth century. 
It is claimed by some that he planned his Novum 
Organum while a student at Cambridge ; but this 
is doubtless an exaggerated view of his precocity. 
It may be that he sketched some new scheme of 
philosophical study in opposition to the then 
prevailing system, but this is a very different 



470 CULTURA. 

thing from one of the greatest works of modern 
times which marked the maturity of his genius. 

Soon after he left Cambridge he went to Paris 
with the English ambassador. He spent some 
time in Paris, and traveled in the French ])ro- 
vinces. He was enjoying his studies in France, 
but was called home by the sudden death of his 
father. The father had laid up sufficient to pur- 
chase an estate for Francis, his youngest son, and 
the only one unprovided for; but his sudden 
death prevented his intentions ever being carried 
out, and the young man was left in comparative 
poverty. He determined to adopt the law as the 
means by which he could support himself. He 
was a complete success in his profession, and had 
he given his life to the law he would doubtless 
have become the most noted lawyer of modern 
times. As it was, he became one of the greatest 
of his day. 

In early life Bacon seemed to have reflected 
much upon his special mission. He laid out for 
himself a comprehensive scheme, which shows 
that he had great confidence in his own powers. 
One special aim of his life was to do good for 
humanity by the discovery of truth. This made 



CULTURA, 471 

him a philosopher. In the second place, he 
wanted to be of service to his country ; and this 
made him a politician. He thought that he 
could at the same time be of service to the 
church ; and while he did not become a theolo- 
gian, he was a strong believer in the potency of 
Christianity for the elevation of society. At that 
time the English court was divided into two 
parties ; one was headed by the two Cecils, and 
the other by the earl of Leicester, and afterwards 
by his son-in-law, the earl of Essex. Bacon 
was a nephew of Lord Burleigh, and first cousin 
to Sir Robert Cecil. He applied repeatedly to 
his uncle for promotion; but his distiugnished 
kinsman seemed to have been so interested in 
the advancement of his own son that he had but 
little encouragement for his nephew. In fact, 
it appears quite evident that the Cecils were 
somewhat envious of the wonderful talents of 
young Bacon. 

In 1593 Bacon entered Parliament as a mem- 
ber from Middlesex. He delivered a speech in 
favor of postponing certain subsidies, and <; reatly 
offended the queen. On being remonstrated 
with, he replied : " I spoke in discharge of my 



472 CULTURA. 

conscience and duty to God, to queen, and to 
my country.^' It was a noble reply, and it is a 
great misfortune that he himself did not always 
remember it. Ben Johnson, who was certainly 
a competent judge, thus compliments his parlia- 
mentary eloquence ; " There happened, in my 
time, one noble speaker, who was full of gravity 
in his speaking. His language, where he could 
spare or pass by a jest, was nobly censorious. 
No man ever spoke more neatly, more pressly, 
more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less 
idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his 
speech but consisted of his own graces. His 
hearers could not cough or look aside from hira 
without loss. He commanded when he spoke, 
and had his judges angry or pleased at his devo- 
tion.^' 

Bacon has been greatly blamed on account of 
his conduct towards the earl of Essex. Essex 
had been his friend in time of need, and had done 
much towards advancing the fortunes of Bacon. 
He had really been a friend in time of need, and 
it certainly looks like ingratitude for his friend 
to have forsaken him in the time of his greatest 
peed. Not pnly did Bacon forsake himj, but 



CULTURA. 473 

actually appeared as an attorney against him. 
He used his great skill as a lawyer to heighten 
the crime of Essex. It may be that the queen 
"would have pardoned the erring earl, if Bacon 
had been a friend to him in his great extremity. 

/ As it was, Essex was condemned and executed. 

\We can, however, say this in favor of Bacon's 
conduct. At the beginning of the trouble, he 
stood by Essex and gave him wholesome advice. 
If the earl had taken his advice it might have 
saved him from complete disgrace, and it evi- 
dently would have saved his life. Essex was 
stubborn, and refused to take advice. The earl 
was guilty of treason, and Bacon's views on that 
subject may have caused him to justify the course 
he took towards his friend. Mr. Montagu, in 
his life of Bacon, has labored hard to justify the 
course of the philosopher; but he has hardly 
succeeded in convincing posterity that Lord 
Bacon was not blamable in his conduct toward 
the earl of Essex. 

In 1603 Elizabeth died, and was succeeded by 
King James. Bacon had much to expect from 
the disposition of this monarch, and he was not 
disappointed. His fortunes were advanced quite 



474 CULTUEA. 

rapidly. In 1607 he was made solicitor general, 
by which his practice was greatly extended. He 
had made two attempts to marry wealthy, and 
had failed. He, however, persevered, and suc- 
ceeded in the third attempt. He married Alice 
Barnham, daughter of a rich alderman of London. 
With all his complications and political aspira- 
tions, he did not forget his literary work. He 
seems always to have kept this before his mind, 
and regarded it as the most important part of his 
mission. His essays and other works had ren- 
dered him very popular in the literary world, and 
he determined to continue his literary advance- 
ment to the end of life. In 1609 he published 
" The Wisdom of the Ancients," and made the 
classic fables the vehicles of many original 
thoughts. Some writers think that Bacon's 
advancement under King James was slow, but I 
do not so regard it when all the circumstances are 
considered. In 1611 he was made a joint judge 
of the Knight MarshaPs Court, and the next year 
was appointed attorney general, and was made a 
member of the Privy Council. While he held the 
office of attorney general he was engaged in some 
very important cases. In one in particular he 



CULTURA. 475 

was certainly greatly at fault, and while posterity 
has been very lenient towards him, it can not 
justify his conduct. An old clergyman by the 
name of Peacham was indicted for treason con- 
tained in a sermon which he had never preached. 
It is claimed that he was examined in the tower 
under torture, and that Bacon assisted in this 
barbarous act. It is sad to think of the fact that 
the founder of modern science was among the 
last of great leaders to torture men for the pur- 
pose of making them incriminate themselves. 

We have not the space to discuss the com- 
plicated question of Bacon's moral conduct 
when he reached the zenith of his political glory. 
In 1617, on the retirement of Lord Brackley, 
he was appointed keeper of the Great Seal. 
His administration was far from satisfactory; 
and most of the time he was simply a tool of 
the unscrupulous Buckingham. He lacked in 
manliness, and was not suited for a political po- 
sition. While others, doubtless, did the same 
thing, he committed a grave error in accepting 
large presents from persons engaged in chan- 
cery suits. His enemies claimed that he had re- 
ceived in this way about one hundred thousand 



476 CULTURA. 

pounds, but this was probably an exaggeration. 
Be that as it may, he had accepted enough to 
get him into great trouble. He was accused of 
corruption, and impeached. His terrible re- 
morse shows that he was conscious that his 
course had not been upright. For several days 
he remained in his bed and refused to see any 
one. He told his attendants never to mention 
his name, and forget that such a man had ever 
lived in the world. He plead guilty to the 
charges preferred against him; and was fined 
forty-thousand pounds, and imprisoned in the 
tower during the king's pleasure. He was also 
declared incapable of sitting in Parliament, or 
holding any office in the state, and was ban- 
ished for life from the verge of the court. The 
sentence was never executed. At the end of 
the second day he was released from the tower, 
and his fine remitted by the crown. It was 
not long until he was allowed to present him- 
self at court, and in 1624 the rest of his sen- 
tence was remitted. He was again invited to 
sit in Parliament, but did not attend. 

While there has been much discussion in ref- 
erence to Bacon's moral character, the poet has 



CULTURA. 477 

certainly gone to an extreme when he calls him 
" the wisest and meanest of mankind.^' It is 
certainly true that he could not stand political 
temptation ; but if he had given his time to the 
studies to which he was inclined, he would have 
left to mankind a spotless as well as a great 
name. He realized this in his old age, and did 
not try to hide the fact that he had thought pro- 
foundly and acted unworthily. He said : " For 
my name and memory, I leave it to men^s char- 
itable speeches, and to foreign nations, and to 
the next age." He died in 1626 from cold con- 
tracted in dressing a fowl. He thought that 
snow might be used to prevent animal substances 
from putrefying. He determined to try the ex- 
periment, and in stuffing a fowl full of snow 
felt a chill from which he never recovered. He 
lingered for about a week, and died. In the 
last letter that he ever wrote, he said that the 
experiment of the snow and fowl had succeeded 
well. " The great apostle of experimental phil- 
osophy," says Macaulay, " was destined to be 
a martyr." Posterity has been lenient with the 
great man, and as Macaulay says : " Turn where 
we will, the trophies of that mighty intellect are 



478 CULTURA. 

full in view.'^ Peace to the memory of the 
great philosopher. 

Did Bacon invent the inductive method? 
Many persons think that Bacon invented a new 
method called induction, and found some fallacy 
in the deductive method then in use. This is a 
great mistake, for the inductive method has 
always been practiced by persons who have rea- 
soned at all. In fact, in every age both meth- 
ods have been used, but sometimes one method 
has been emphasized more than the other. The 
school-boy uses induction, and the child as soon 
as it can observe at all seems naturally to use it. 
Some may claim that while Bacon was not the 
first to use the inductive method, he was the 
first to analyze and properly apply it. This is 
also a mistake, for Aristotle clearly pointed out 
the fact that it was the only method which would 
lead man to the discovery of new truth. While 
we think that Bacon did much for the method 
by his close analysis, it is simply an analysis of 
what all men do when they reason. It is evi- 
dent that Bacon and his followers have greatly 
exaggerated the importance of the analysis he 
made. As Macaulay says, William Tell would 



CULTURA. 479 

not have been any more likely to hit the apple if 
he had known that his arrow would describe a 
parabola under the influence of the earth's at- 
traction. Bacon so far exaggerated his work 
that he thought that a fool could by the use of 
his method discover truth about as rapidly as 
could a wise man. 

What Aristotle did for the deductive process 
Bacon has done for the inductive process. The 
first was thoroughly analyzed by the great Greek 
philosopher, and the same thing was done for 
the second by the great Englishman. While all 
reasoners use both methods, some use them well, 
and some do not. Many have so used the JVb- 
vum Organum as to bring the whole process in- 
to ridicule ; while such men as Newton and 
Franklin have used it for the discovery of truth. 
The difference between a sound and unsound in- 
duction does not lie in the fact that one uses the 
Baconian method and the other does not, for 
both use the same method ; but one uses it care- 
lessly, and the other uses it with patient atten- 
tion and judgment. It is not, then, true that 
Bacon invented a method ; but he did analyze 
and emphasize the only method that can be used 



480 CULTUEA. 

in the discovery of truth. It would have been 
difficult to convince Seneca that any mechanical 
invention was worthy of a philosopher ; hut he 
certainly knew that discovery nnd invention re- 
quired the inductive method. Aristotle never 
would have employed the syllogism for purposes 
of invention and discovery. Bacon did a irrand 
work for the world by the channel in which he 
directed the inductive method. 

What has been the influence of the Baconian 
method upon the progress of physical science? 
While the ancient philosophers understood the 
inductive method, they did not apply it to the 
advancement of physical science, as have the 
followers of Lord Bacon. It has been said that 
utility and progress are the key-words of the 
Baconian philosophy. Macaulay draws a very 
interesting and instructive contrast between 
Plato and Bacon. Plato thought that men 
should study mathematics, because it prepared 
. the mind for the contemplation of pure truth, 
and lifted man above the material universe. 
The vulgar, he said, would not understand him, 
because they always had practice in view. 
According to Plutarch, Plato thought that 



CULTURA. 481 

geometry was degraded by applying it to the 
purposes of vulgar utility. Bacon took exactly 
the opposite view. He valued geometry for 
the very purposes which Plato considered 
vulgar, and advised mathematicians to quit 
their speculations, and employ themselves in 
physical researches. Plato recommended the 
study of astronomy for the purpose of raising 
the mind to the contemplation of things per- 
ceived by the pure intellect alone. Bacon rec- 
ommended for purposes considered by Plato 
vulgar. In a sense both were right, and the 
combination of the Platonic and Baconian 
philosophies gives us a perfect system of 
philosophy. 

It is certain that the Baconian philosophy 
has had an important influence upon the pro- 
gress of physical science ; but we must not con- 
clude that modern science had made no pro- 
gress before the days of Bacon. The Novum 
Organum was not published until 1620, and 
modern physical science made considerable pro- 
gress during the sixteenth century. His name- 
sake, Eoger Bacon, in his Opus Majus, had 
insisted that experience was the truest guide in 



482 CULTURA. 

the discovery of truth, and pointed out the 
causes of error very similar to those afterward 
discussed by Francis Bacon. Copernicus, 
Galileo, and others had long accomplished their 
work ; and it is a fact that Lord Bacon never 
did give his assent to the Copernican astronomy. 
He certainly deserves great credit for what he 
has done to stimulate the progress of science; 
but we should not forget the great names which 
preceded his, and remember that science would 
have continued to progress if Bacon had never 
lived. We are too apt to forget the spirit of an 
age, and in our hero worship give some man 
who represents that spirit credit for accom- 
plishing what others have done, possibly, as 
much to promote as himself Bacon did 
much for modern science, but in the way 
of discovery others have certainly done much 
more. 

What influence has the Baconian philosophy 
had upon Christianity? Bacon himself was a 
believer in Christianity, and thought that a 
thorough knowledge of nature confirmed the 
truths of religion. According to his view, it 
was the amateurs in science that became skep- 



CULTURA. 483 

tical. This great philosopher had a thorough 
knowledge of human nature, and was very cor- 
rect in his decisions. It has always been the 
shallow students of science who have been rant- 
ing infidels. While some great scientists have 
evidently had their doubts, as a rule they have 
been modest ; and while they have opposed cer- 
tain creeds and superstitions, they have gener- 
ally had great respect for the fundamental prin- 
ciples of religion. Sir Isaac Newton, Michael 
Faraday, and a host of others, have been devout 
believers in the Christianity of the Bible. 

The inductive method itself is really the 
method of religion. While the highest truths 
can only be known in part, what is known of 
them is obtained through induction. Man can 
only know power as an attribute of personality ; 
so primeval man could only attribute the forces 
of nature to a higher personality. Thus man's 
first conception of God, so far as nature revealed 
him, was that of a God of power. It was an 
induction from observed facts, and precisely the 
same process that is now used by modern sci- 
ence. These inductions have borne the tests of 
experience and universality, and have retained 



484 CULTURA. 

a permanent hold upon the faith of mankind. 
Man continued to progress in a knowledge of a 
higher power as in other things ; and when there 
was retrogression on the part of mankind in 
reference to a knowledge of God, there was also 
a deterioration in every other respect. Man is 
the only animal that progresses, and it is inter- 
esting to know that the highest anthropoid has 
never invented even the rudest tool. The first 
introduction of man upon the earth marks the 
beginning of stone instruments, and the advo- 
cates of gradual evolution have never been able 
to explain this break of continuity. These 
tools mark intelligence, although they may not 
always have been wisely used. It is said that 
negroes, when the wheelbarrow was first intro- 
duced, carried it on their heads; but afterward 
they learned its fitness for another purpose. It 
is so with the works of God. Man has not 
always understood their fitness, but by constant 
inductions he acquires a better knowledge of 
their design. It was by the inductive method 
as given in both nature and revelation that man 
acquired a knowledge of all the attributes of 
Jehovah. 



CULTURA. 485 

It has been a question with many as to 
whether Bacon intended his method to apply to 
the moral as well as to the physical sciences. 
We do not hesitate to answer this question in 
the affirmative; for in his "De Augmentis 
Sclentiarum'^ he includes logic, politics and 
ethics. In the first book of the ^' Novum Or- 
ganum^^ we read the following language: 
" Perhaps any one might doubt, rather than 
object, whether we intend to perfect by our 
method not only natural philosophy, but also 
the other sciences, such as logic, ethics and poli- 
tics. We reply that we understand the things 
we have spoken to be applicable to them all." 
It is evident from this that Bacon intended to 
include these subjects in his method. While 
this is true, it is also evident that he applied his 
method to these subjects with the greatest tim- 
idity. The positivists claim Bacon as their 
apostle, but they certainly take only a one- 
sided view of his philosophy. He never in- 
tended to describe a semicircle as do they, but 
intended the circle to be complete. While the 
great want of his age was a knowledge of facts, 
^nd he did all he could to supply this knowl- 



486 CULTURA. 

edge, it is certain that he did not design to 
exclude ethics, that higher science, which spe- 
cially relates man to the unseen universe. 
Bacon's work was not complete, but he attended 
to the wants of Jhis age, and laid down a method 
of investigation which he thought would apply 
to the highest truths of the universe. 

The empirical element in the Baconian phil- 
osophy was carried by Hobbes into metaphysics. 
Bacou certainly never would have indorsed the 
position of Hobbes. He was a disciple of 
Bacon, and thought he could perfect what his 
master had left incomplete. Bacon had at- 
tached so much importance to experience, that 
Hobbes concluded that it was the only source 
of knowledge. He so developed this principle 
that he made sensation the real basis ef every 
mental action, and the sole originator of all 
our ideas. As we only perceive the material 
through sensation, he concluded that matter is 
the only reality, and thus went into the most 
reckless materialism. He considered the mind 
as altogether material, and regarded the phe- 
nomena of consciousness as only the direct 
result of our organization. His position, of 



CULTURA. 487 

course, was opposed to all true religion. He 
claimed that we could conceive of nothing that 
did not present itself to us as a sensuous image, 
and according to this position we could not, of 
course, have any conception of God. Hobbes 
was as much a one-sided disciple of Lord Bacon 
as was Strauss afterward a one-sided disciple of 
the great Hegel. 



Chaeles Darwin and Evolution. 

introduction. 

Evolution is not by any means a new doc- 
trine. It was taught by many great thinkers in 
the early history of the race. Gautama, whom 
Edwin Arnold calls the Light of Asin, taught 
evolution very much as it is taught at the pres- 
ent time. The Brahmins taught that spirit was 
developed into matter ; but the Buddhists taught 
the opposite — that matter was developed into 
spirit. The Egyptians, who taught that life 
originated in the slime of the Nile, were evohi- 
tionists. The Greek philosopher, Anaximander, 
taught the theory of evolution six hundred years 
before Christ. He taught that the earth ac- 
quired its present solidity through the evapora- 
tion of the muddy water of the ocean. In this 
mud he thought that life originated. The smaller 
animals, he taught, developed into larger ones 
until finally man appeared, who was, at first, an 
aquatic animal. It is inlerestino: to observe how 

488 



CTJLTURA. 489 

Similar is this theory to that of Mr. Charles Dar- 
win. Through the Greeks the evolution hypoth- 
esis was introduced to the modern Europeans. 

Lamarck was doubtless the most noted prede- 
cessor of Mr. Darwin. He explained organic 
adaptations and progressive development of ani- 
mals through the following principles : medium, 
habit, and need. This theory can not explain 
why one organ takes the form of lungs, another 
the form of gills. The heart and the circula- 
tion of the blood receive from it no explanation. 
How could it explain the wonderful mechan- 
ism of the human eye ? This problem fright- 
ened even Mr. Darwin himself. The human 
eye will forever baffle every effort to get rid of 
the doctrine of finality. Lamarck finally con- 
fessed that medium was not sufficient to explain 
the production and adaptation of organic forms. 

He called in need to produce organs, and 
habit to develop them. Lamarck admitted that 
it could not be proved that need produced or- 
gans. It would be absurd to talk about the j^ 
need of seeing producing eyes, and the need of 
hearing producing ears. If that were true, every 
blind man would see, and every deaf man 



490 CULTURA. 

would hear. The effort of Lamarck to banish 
the doctrine of final cause was a complete fail- 
ure. Mr. Darwin saw its weakness, and tried 
to substitute a better theory in its place. 

SECTION II. THE LIFE OF CHARLES DARWIN. 

Charles Darwin, who was born in 1809, 
was the fifth son of Dr. Robert Darwin. The 
Darwin family had become somewhat noted in 
the scientific world. Mr. Darwin was much 
dissatisfied with the educational system of his 
day. The classics he learned with great diffi- 
culty. He declared that it was almost impossi- 
ble for him to learn a language. He could 
commit to memory rapidly, and forget nearly as 
rapidly as he could commit. In 1826, Mr. Dar- 
win matriculated in the University of Edin- 
burgh, where he remained two years. His father 
was anxious to make a physician out of him, 
but he did not like the study of medicine. He 
says that the lectures on materia medica were as 
dry as the professors themselves. He left 
Edinburgh, and went to Cambridge where he 
took the degree of B. A. He says that the 
three years spent in this university were wasted 



CULTURA. 491 

somewhat similar to the two years at Edin- 
burgh. He, however, took a special interest in 
Paley's Natural Theology. In fact, he thought 
of becoming a minister, and did not fully aban- 
don the idea until he entered the Beagle expe- 
dition as a naturalist. 

When the position of naturalist in the Bea- 
gle was offered him, he readily accepted. His 
father objected, but his objections were removed 
by the strong inclinations of the young man. 
Young Darwin was anxious to travel, and this 
afforded him a rare opportunity. The Beagle 
was commissioned by the government to survey 
the southern extremity of the South American 
continent. This expedition was of great bene- 
fit to a scientist, and Mr. Darwin made valuable 
use of his time. In fact, he distinguished him- 
self as a scientist by his productions which 
were the results of this voyage. 

Mr. Darwin returned home in 1836, and his 
father, who was not a phrenologist, exclaimed 
when he saw him : " Why, the shape of his head 
is quite altered.^' Mr. Darwin continued his 
studies, and in 1837 opened his first note book 
for facts in relation to the origin of species. In 



492 CULTURA. 

1839 he was married to Miss Emma Wedgwood, 
his cousin, and remained in London three 
years longer. 

In 1842 Mr. Darwin left London, and settled 
in tiie quiet little village of Down, where he 
spent the remaining forty years of his life. Here 
he reared his children, and accomplished the 
greatest scientific work of his life. In 1858, 
when Mr. Darwin had quite well matured his 
Origin of Species, Mr. Wallace sent him an essay 
advocating the same thing. Mr. Darwin was 
induced to publish this together with one of his 
own in the Journal of the Proceedings of the 
Linnean Society. They did not, however, attract 
much attention at that time. He published his 
work on the Origin of Species in 1859, and it 
was successful from the start. Mr. Darwin 
claims this as the chief work of his life. His work 
on the Descent of Man, which appeared in 1871, 
was only complementary to this. He tries to prove 
that man descended from a lower order of animal 
life. He infers that man descended from a hairy 
quadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed ears, 
and probably arboreal in its habits. We will 
have more to say about his theories hereafter. 



CULTTJRA. 493 

Until he was thirty years of age, Mr. Darwin 
was fond of poetry ; but during the last thirty 
years of his life he lost all taste for anything of 
the kind. The following are his words : " This 
curious and lamentable loss of the higher aesthetic 
tastes is all the odder, as books of history, biog- 
raphies^ and travels (iudrpendently of any scien- 
tific facts which they may contain), and essays 
on all sorts of subjects, interest me as much as 
ever they did. My mind seems to have l)ecome 
a kind of machine for grinding general laws out 
of a large collection of facts ; but why this should 
have caused tbe atrophy of that part of the brain 
alone on which the higher tastes depend, I can 
not conceive. A man with a mind more highly 
organized or better constituted than mine would 
not, I suppose, have thus suffered ; and if I had 
my life to live again, I would have made a rule 
to read some poetry and to listen to some music 
at least every week ; for perhaps the part of my 
brain now atrophied would thus have been kept 
active through use. The loss of these tastes is a 
loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious 
to the intellect, and more probably to the moral 
character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our 



494 CULTURA. 

nature/' This language goes far towards explain- 
ing Mr. Darwin's change in his religious views. 
It is not difficult to see how the man who lost 
all appreciation of music and poetry should also 
lose his interest in religion. We will now give 
the steps by which he lost his faith in Christian- 
ity, and even in theism. 

Mr. Darwin says : '^ Considering how fiercely 
I have been attacked by the orthodox, it seems 
ludicrous that I once intended to be a clergyman. 
Nor was this intention and my father's wish ever 
formally given up, but died a natural death 
when, on leaving Cambridge, I joined the Beagle 
as a naturalist." Mr. Darwin was about forty 
years of age when he gave up Christianity. It 
came about in this way. He thought that his 
theory of evolution was certainly true, and that 
it contradicted the Book of Genesis. He did not 
seem to know much about Genesis, and assumed 
that it teaches that God created each species by a 
separate and immediate fiat. If he had known 
that Genesis does not really give God's method 
of creating, he might never have parted with 
Christianity. If he had had Dr. McCosh or 
Prof. Winchell to enlighten him along here, he 



cuiTrKA. 495 

might never have gone into infidelity. He knew 
that Christ endorsed Genesis, and that in giving 
up this book consistency forced him to give up 
Christianity also. He assumed that miracles 
were the only proof of Christianity ; and as he 
did not believe In miracles, he thought Christi- 
anity must go. Mr. Darwin admits his own 
narrowness, and that he lost all taste for even 
music and poetry. It is not surprising that he 
also abandoned Christianity. 

It was many years after he abandoned Christi- 
anity before his faith in a personal God was 
shaken. In a letter written in 1879, he says : 
" I may state that my judgment often fluctuates. 
In my most extreme fluctuations I have never 
been an atheist in the sense of denying the exist- 
ence of God. I think generally (and more and 
more as I grow older, but not always), an agnos- 
tic would be the more correct description of my 
state of mind." The law of natural selection 
appeared to him to be destructive to Paley's 
argument from design in nature. He did not 
claim that the universe was the result of chance, 
but thought that the proof of its creation by an 
intelligent mind incomplete. He mentions the 



496 CULTURA. 

instinctive belief of mankind in a personal God, 
and then uses these plaintive words : " With me 
the horrid doubt always arises, whether the con- 
victions of man^s mind, which have been de- 
veloped from the minds of the lower animals, 
are of any value or at all trustworthy. '' It is 
strange that he did not apply this language to 
his own theory. Why should his conviction be 
more trustworthy than that of others? Mr. 
Darwin is an example of a great man who studied 
man's relationship to the lower animals so much 
that he lost sight of his relationship to God. 
Mr. Darwin's final conclusion is contained in a 
letter written to a Dutch student in 1876 : "The 
whole subject is beyond the scope of man's intel- 
lect, but man can do his duty." In the last 
statement Mr. Darwin seems to realize that a 
belief in God and immortality has something to 
do in man's doing his duty; so he tells the 
young man that he can do his duty even if he 
can not reach this belief. 

Does Darwinism, if true, destroy the doctrine 
of finality ? Mr. Darwin is not willing to say 
that the universe is the result of chance. In his 
last letter to Mr. Huxley, just before his death, 



CULTTJRA. 497 

he says: "I wish to God there were more auto- 
mata in the world like you." In bis artificial 
selection, Mr. Darwin is back of the forces he 
uses; so in natural selection, God is back of the 
forces used. It is said that there is a village 
near Potsdam noted for the size of its inhab- 
itants. Why is this? The father of Frederick 
the Great, who was fond of large men, chose the 
tallest women he could find as wives for his 
grenadiers. Plato, in his Republic, advised the 
marriage of the handsomest men and women in 
order to obtain vigorous citizens. Here we have 
artificial selection, and not chance. In the pro- 
gress of humanity there is selection ; but back 
of all is the guiding hand of Jehovah. While 
natural selection may do much, there must be over 
it a superintending mind. We are necessarily 
driven to the doctrine of finality, or the theory 
of chance. The theory of chance is so absurd 
that scientists will not accept it, so all intelli- 
gent persons must accept the doctrine of finality. 

SECTION II. THE BIBLE AND EVOLUTION. 

The question is frequently asked, Does evolu- 
tion contradict the Bible? It depends altogether 



498 CULTURA. 

upon what is meant by evolution. Atheistic 
evolution does, of course, contradict the Bible ; 
but there are many evolutionists who are firm 
believers in the inspiration of the Scriptures. 
In fact, I believe that the Bible is more favor- 
able to evolution than are the facts of nature. 
In other words, the Bible does not give God's 
method of creating, and it will harmonize with 
any rational theory. Mr. Darwin did not claim 
that evolution originated life, but that God 
created the first germs. He always opposed any 
theory of chance. Even when he called himself 
an agnostic, he wanted it understood he was no 
atheist. Mr. Darwin, in his Origin of Species, 
^ speaks of life "having been originally breathed 
\by the Creator into a few forms, or only one," 
at is certain that evolution can not account for 
the origin^of life ; and that back of all evolution 
the evolver must exist. If evolution were true, 
it could be nothing more than God's method of 
creating. It could be only finite, and commence 
in finite time ; for the organism of the universe 
is not eternal, and it demands a power superior 
to itself to have originated it. Evolution could 
not be self inaugurated, and it consequently 



CULTURA. 499 

could not supply us with a beginning in ultimate 
causation. Matter and force are not self-existent, 
but were created by Jehovah. Bereshith bara 
Elohim, In this connection I wish to quote the 
following language of Dr. Oliver Wendell 
Holmes: '' Whatever part may be assigned to 
the physical forces in the production of the 
phenomena of life, all being is not the less one 
perpetual miracle, in which the infinite Creator, 
acting through what we call secondary causes, 
is himself the moving principle of the universe 
he first framed and never ceases to sustain." 
Dr. McCosh clearly shows that the following 
things can not be accounted for by any theory of 
development : 

1. It can not account for the origination of 
this universe. There can only be development 
among materials already existing. Aristotle and 
all profound thinkers maintain that the mind 
naturally seeks after an origin. 

2. There is a power which works in develop- 
ment for which development itself can not ac- 
count. Call this power what you please, the 
persistence of force, or the conservation of 
energy, it implies something back of it that 



500 CTJLTURA. 

gives it potency. Even Mr. Spencer knows 
enough about tliis absolute certainty to call him 
the Unknowable. 

3. No theory of development can account for 
the beneficent laws and special ends we see in 
nature. The student of nature finds order and 
adaptation everywhere; and these things cer- 
tainly point to the Supreme Architect of the 
universe who has arranged everything for the 
welfare of man. 

SECTION III. THE ADMISSIONS OF EVOLUTIONISTS. 

Mr. Darwin uses the following language, 
which certainly teaches that evolution alone 
can not account for the origin of things: 
" When we contemplate every complex structure 
as the summing up of many contrivances, each 
useful to the possessor^ in the same way as any 
great mechanical invention is the summing up 
of the labor, the experience, the reason, and 
even the blunders of numerous workmen ; when 
we thus view each organic being — I speak from 
experience — how much more interesting does the 
study of natural history become." (Origin of 
Species (1872), page 426.) In this language Mr. 



CULTURA. 501 

Darwin concedes reason and design, and it can 
only be consistent with a rational theism. 

Prof. Huxley is universally recognized as one 
of the greatest of Mr. Darwin's disciples. We 
take the following from his Lay Sermons: 
"After much consideration, and assuredly with 
no bias against Mr. Darwin's views, it is our 
clear conviction that, as the evidence now 
stands, it is not absolutely proven that a group 
of animals, having all the characters exhibited 
by species in nature, has ever been originated 
by selection, either artificial or natural." 

George Mivart, F. R. S., in his work on Gen- 
esis of Species, says: "A cumulative argument 
thus arises against the prevalent action of natu- 
ral selection, which to the author is conclusive. 
As before observed, he was not originally dis- 
posed to reject Mr. Darwin's fascinating theory. 
Reiterated endeavors to solve its difficulties 
have, however, had the effect of convincing him 
that that theory as the one, or as the leading, 
explanation of the successive evolution and 
manifestation of specific forms, is untenable. 
At the same time he admits fully that natural 
selection acts, and must act, and that it plays in 



502 CULTURA. 

the organic world a certain, though a secondary 
and subordinate part." 

Prof. Alexander Winch ell, one of the greatest 
scientists in this country, and entirely favorable 
to the theory of evolution, in his work on " The 
Doctrine of Evolution," p. 49, says: '^The 
Lamarckian theory of inherent appetency is 
little insisted on at the present day, and unmodi- 
fied Darigfinism, it may be added, has fallen into 
a widespread disrepute. Neither Huxley, nor 
Parsons, nor Mivart, nor even Wallace, one of 
its original propounders, accepts the doctrine in 
its integrity ; while they maintain that the prin- 
ciple of natural selection is a true conditioning 
cause of a certain amount ^9f variation, or, at 
least, a means of preserving in existence an 
improved form, when making its appearance 
through any cause whatever." 

Possibly the greatest scientist of this age is 
Prof Rudolph Virchow, of the University of 
Berlin, president of the International Medical 
Congress, president of the German Anthropo- 
logical Socieijv, and recently honored with the 
presidency of the German Scientific Association. 
About ten years ago, in an address before the 



CULTUBA. 503 

German Scientific Association, he alluded to the 
Darwinian theory as a beautiful theory, declared 
his partiality for it, but admitted that thus far 
he had failed to find that it rested on any scien- 
tific basis. In a recent article on " Anthro- 
pology'' he says: "In vain liave the links 
which should bind man to the monkey been 
sought ; not a single one is there to show. The 
so-called proanthropos, who should exhibit this 
link, has not been found. No really learned 
man asserts that he has seen him. For the 
anthropologist, therefore, the proanthropos is 
not an object of discussion founded on fact. 
Perhaps some one may have seen him in a 
dream, but when awake he will not be able to 
say he has approached him. Even the hope of 
soon discovering him has departed ; it is hardly 
spoken of, for we live not in a world of imagi- 
nation or dreams, but in an actual world, that 
has shown itself full of difficulty." 

SECTION IV. OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY OP 
EVOLUTION. 

It is necessary to understand just here 
what is meant by the theory of evolu- 



504 CULTUKA. 

tion. Many include in it the theories of spon- 
taneous generation and the transmutation of 
species. According to this, even Mr. Darwin 
himself was not a good evolutionist. It is 
against the theory thus understood that these 
objections are specially urged. 

1. The facts of science are against the theory 
of spontaneous generation. I do not object to 
it from a Biblical standpoint, but strictly from 
a scientific standpoint. If matter possessed 
such potency, it would have required the power 
of Jehovah to have imparted it ; for matter is 
certainly not a fin^l cause in itself. 

In the middle ages some of the leading reli- 
gious teachers held to the theory of spontaneous 
generation. It was the opinion of St. Augus- 
tine that God created by conferring upon 
matter the power to evolve organization. St. 
Thomas Aquinas fully approved of the saying of 
Augustine, and went so far aa to say that in the 
first institution of nature we do not look for 
miracles, but for the laws of nature. He also 
taught that plants and animals were created 
derivatively ; so you see that modern evolution 
really had a religious origin. 



CULTURA. 605 

Spontaneous generation appears to be one of 
the greatest props of Agnostic Evolution : but it 
is a prop that will not stand. Even Hackel 
admits that there is no direct evidence that spon- 
taneous generation has ever occurred, and that the 
analogy of nature is leally against it. Professor 
Tyndall says : " True men of science will frankly 
admit their inability to point to any satisfactory 
experimental proof that life can be developed, 
save from demonstrable antecedent life.'' The 
following are the words of Professor Huxley : 
" The fact is, that at the present moment there is 
not a shadow of trustworthy direct evidence 
that abiogenesis does take place, or has taken 
place, within the period during which the exis- 
tence of life on the globe is recorded." Prof. 
Lionel Beale, F. R. S., England's greatest au- 
thority on the subject, thus speaks: "There are no 
scientific facts which can at all warrant the con- 
clusion that non-living matter only, under any 
conceivable condition, can be converted into liv- 
ing matter, or at any previous time has, by any 
combination, or under any conditions that may 
have existed, given rise to the formation of 
anything which possesses, or has possessed, life," 



506 CULTURA. 

Prof. Virchow, of Berlin, the greatest authority 
in Germany on the subject, says : " This gener- 
alio equivocaj which has been so often contested 
and so oflen contradicted, is, nevertheless, 
always meeting us afresh. To be sure, we 
know not a single positive fact to prove that a 
generatio equivoca has ever been made ; that in- 
organic masses, such as the firm of Carbon & Co., 
have ever spontaneously developed themselves 
into organic masses. No one has ever seen a 
generatio equivoca effected; and whoever sup- 
posses that it has occurred is contradicted by the 
naturalist, and not merely by the theologian.^' 

2. Life is not consistent with the gaseous 
state, and must have been introduced aft§f it. 
This is a gap in the theory of evolution which 
has not been bridged ; and, so far as we can see, 
it never can be, for life can not come from the 
lifeless, 

3. There is no evidence that a vegetable has 
ever been transmuted into an animal. It is true 
that the animal has a relationship to the vegeta- 
ble, and appropriates it ; but the animal had to 
be created before this could be done. There is 
nothing in the vegetable kingdom to account 



CULTURA. 507 

for the sensation and instinct belonging to the 
animal. 

4. There is no evidence of the transmutation 
of species in the animal kingdom. Professor 
Winchell says : " The great stubborn fact which 
every form of the theory encounters at the very 
outset is that, notwithstanding variations, we 
are ignorant of a single instance of the deriva- 
tion of one good species from another. The 
world has been ransacked for an example, and 
occasionally it has seemed for a time as if an 
instance had been found of the origination of a 
genuine species by so-called natural agencies ; 
but we only give utterance to the admissions of 
all the recent advocates of derivative theories 
when we announce that the long-sought experi- 
mentum crucis has not been discovered.^' 

The following facts are against this derivative 
hypothesis : (1) The change of one species into 
another has never been observed. Cuvier argued 
against the transmutation of species on the 
ground that the birds and beasts of the cata- 
combs were identical in every respect with the 
animals of the same kind that live now. Geol- 
ogy can be brought in here as a witness against 



508 CULTURA. 

the transmutation hypothesis. (2) The inter- 
mediate forms demanded by the theoryy so far as 
science knows, have never existed. The great 
European geologist, Barrande, has proved this 
statement absolutely true. (3) The sterility of 
hybrids is a great natural fact forever against 
the theory. Lyell, the great geologist, says : 
"Wild animals of different species manifest a 
decided repugnance to each other. When, un- 
der domestication, man succeeds in overcoming 
this repugnance, the offspring are sterile among 
themselves." (4) Natural selection is not^ pro- 
ductive force; and, consequently can not fill up 
the gaps in the gradation. There is a g£m be- 
tween dead and living matter; a gap between 
the vegetable and animal; and a still greater 
gap between the animal and man. Even Pro- 
fessor Tyndall calls this a " yawning gap "; and 
it is certainly one that has never been bridged 
by the evolution hypothesis. (5) The diff- 
erences between the lower animal and man 
are such that the evolution hypothesis upon 
its principles is not able to account for 
them. Professor Cooke, of Harvard University 
says : " But if man be descended from an an- 



CULTURA. 509 

tliropoid animal of arboreal habits, it is passing 
strange that, so far as any direct evidence goes, 
he should have appeared on the earth thus sud- 
denly, and that we can find no traces of his 
progenitors either of the first, second, third, or 
of any other generation.'' Dr. Wilson, of Cor- 
nell University, says: "In connection with 
this, I note the fact that so far as we know, so 
far as any discoveries or researches have brought 
any facts in the case to light, tliere wore none of 
the quadrumanous animals in existence at the 
time when man appeared, from which man 
could have been derived, that were of a higher 
grade or order than those that are in existence 
now." 

The following differences between man and 
the brute are great difficulties in the way of evo- 
lution : (1) The human infant is the most help- 
less of beings, and could not have survived in a 
contest with the brute creation. The evolution- 
ist tries to abolish the supernatural ; but if the 
first human ^hild had brutes for its parents, it 
was certainly a miracle, for children are not 
now the offspring of brutes. (2) The body of man 
gi»eatlv differs fuom that of the lower animal. 



510 CULTITRA. 

The upright position is natural to man, but not 
to the lower animal. The lowest human being 
has nearly twice the brain capacity of the high- 
est brute. (3) Man is the only animal possess- 
ing language. Dr. Charles F. Deems says: 
"^ " The gorilla is said to possess vocal organs sim- 
ilar to the human. He has had them as long as 
man — longer, according to some evolutionists — 
^.^y^y^ and yet he can not form a language, nor, so far 

as we know, even be taught a language, nor the 
notes of music." Professor Max Miiller says : 
" I believe I may say, without presumption, 
that, to speak of no other barrier between man 
and beast, the barrier of language remains as 
unshaken as ever, and renders every attempt at 
deriving man genealogically from any known or 
unknown ape, for the present, at least, impossi- 
ble, or, at all events, unscientific." (4) The 
brute can not reason abstractly as can man. (5) 
/ Man is a being of progress, but not the lower 
animal. (6) Man is a religious being, but the 
lower animal has no religion. Man's religious 
instincts can only be accounted for on the 
ground that he has a Father in Heaven. 



(3haptbf{ yil. 

The Skepticism of the Nineteenth Cen- 

tuey, and its relationship to 

Men of Culture. 

introduction. 

The position of infidels has varied in different 
ages. In the early history of Christianity, 
skepticism was strictly united with a religious 
creed ; and it was on the defensive, in opposi- 
tion to the aggressive spirit of Christianity. It 
would not be right to charge the philosophic 
opponents of Christianity in the first centuries 
with all the atrocities and abominations of pagan- 
ism; but there can be no doubt that the great- 
est of them, Celsus, Porphyry and the Emperor 
Julian, accepted polytheism in a modified form. 
In one sense they have been an advantage to 
Christianity, for they admitted the genuineness of 
the gospel narratives ; and they now become im- 
portant witnessos in proving the canonicity of 
the books of the New Testament. The skepti- 

511 



512 CULTURA. 

ty cism of the seventeenth century was the result 
of the religious wars and divided condition of 
the church after the reformation; and it pre- 
pared the way for the outbroken infidelity of 
the eighteenth century. There were two schools 
which represented the unbelief of the seven- 
teenth century — the deistic school, and the 
pantheistic. To the first belonged Lord Herbert 
and Hobbes ; to the second, Spinoza. Bayle was 
something of a pessimist; he fought without all 
camps, and wielded quite an influence over the 
skepticism of the next century. During the 
eighteenth century infidelity was more daring 
and aggressive than it was before, or has been 
since. Deism was carried into atheism; and 
pantheism reached an extreme of which Spinoza 
never dreamed. The student of the skepticism 
of the eighteenth century will have no difficulty 
in understanding that of the nineteenth. The 
infidelity of the present century is passive com- 
pared with the fiery aggressiveness of that be- 
longing to the eighteenth. 

In the skepticism of the nineteenth century 
there are two strikingly marked tendencies ; first, 
to deny the supernatural origin of Christianity ; 



CULTURA. 613 

and second, to regard Christianity with more 
favor than did the infidel writers of the eigh- 
teenth century. Many of the opposers of Chris- 
tianity at the present time are willing to concede 
almost anything to it, provided there can be 
some natural explanation of the phenomena. 
Naturalism has really run mad. 

David Friedrich Strauss may be taken as the 
best representative of the German school of 
skeptics in this century, in attempting to solve 
the problem of the life of Christ and the origin 
of Christianity. When Strauss wrote his first 
"Leben Jesu," in 1835, he was a pantheist; 
when he wrote the second, in 1864, he was a 
theist ; when he wrote " Der alte und der neue 
Glaube,*^ in 1873, he had reached the gloomy 
abyss of atheism. As Strauss belonged to the 
left wing of the Hegelian philosophy, his writ- 
ings became the creed of his skeptical brethren, 
and through his influence there was a reaction 
against the orthodox tendency brought about 
by Neander. He was diametrically opposed to 
Neander in his historical ideas ; for he regarded 
history as faint legend of the idea which is the 
soul of all that is valuable in the past. A con- 



514 CULTURA. 

tempt for the historical and personal is the key 
to the " Leben Jesu." This work was the earth- 
quake shock of the nineteenth century to the 
moral feelings of Christendom. It was soon 
answered by the learned and faithful Neander, 
and has now nearly run its course. No man with 
such quick perception and critical ability as 
Strauss can long be satisfied with any school 
of infidelity. Such has been the case with this 
great man ; he has sought rest and found none. 
After trying the different schools, and derisively 
opposing Schopenhauer, he landed at last into 
pessimism, although not so avowedly. Such is 
the sad end of a mournful career, and it will be 
the end of all who ignore the religious demands 
of man's nature. With his critical ability, 
Strauss might have become one of the greatest 
defenders of the truth; but, as it is, he has only 
created ripples upon the great ocean of truth, to 
subside and be lost forever. Truth will triumph, 
and woe to the person who opposes it. 

Ernest Renan is the French representative of 
the Straussian philosophy and theology. He is 
not an author of such marked ability as Strauss, 
and his writings have not had such a widespread 



CULTUEA. 515 

influence. He is far more conservative in regard 
to the New Testament than Strauss ; in fact, he 
substantially admits the genuineness of most of 
the books. With regard to the purity and noble- 
ness of the life of Christ, Renan is far more 
eulogistic than was Strauss, even in his Hegelian 
period. He exhorts his fellow-doubters to re- 
main in the church, and he proclaims religion as 
a necessity to meet the demands of man^s nature. 
He refers to the French revolution as the conse- 
quence of infidelity. It should teach all skeptics 
a lesson. 
5 John Stuart Mill comes nearer representing 
in England the positions of Strauss and Renan 
than does any other writer. Mr. Mill places 
great stress upon the theistic argument from 
design ; although opposed to the doctrine of 
infinity, still he admits the existence of God. 
He also admits the possibility of a revelation, 
but is not satisfied with the evidence. In the 
presentation of his thoughts in reference to the 
origin of Christianity, Mr. Mill shows a gleam 
of Butler, as well as a reflection of English 
deism. We will now give more special atten- 
tion to the teaching of Mr. Mill. 



516 OULTUKA. 

SECTION I. JOHN STUART MILL. 

John Stuart Mill was born in London in 1806, 
and died in Avignon, France, in 1873. He was a 
son of James Mill, a philosopher of considerable 
note, belonging to the sensational school. He 
is a good illustration of the fact that the bent 
twig inclines the full grown tree. His early 
education was received from his father, and he 
always acknowledged his indebtedness to his 
illustrious sire. A careful study of Mr. Mill's 
philosophy will convince the student that he 
has a special theory to sustain. In his Exami- 
nation of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy 
he certainly pointed out some great mistakes in 
this celebrated thinker, but he also failed to 
accept some of the plainest truths taught by the 
great Scotch metaphysician. His reasoning all 
the way through shows his bias for the sensa- 
tional school, to which his father belonged. In 
many points his philosophy also harmonizes with 
the positive school of M. Comte. 

Mr. Mill, in his method, makes the same 
mistake of which Cousin accused Locke. The 
French critic points out these radical errors iu 



CULTUEA. 517 

the method of Locke : (1) He treats of the 
origin of ideas before studying their nature; 
(2) he entirely neglects the last question, and 
leaves his readers in complete ignorance in 
reference to the nature of ideas. It is true that 
he discusses the nature of ideas in his second 
book ; but he is compelled to overlook some of 
the profoundest properties of our ideas to make 
his second book harmonize with his first. Mr. 
Mill tries to justify Locke in this, and con- 
demns Cousin; but he certainly has the cart 
before the horse. We should know the nature 
of ideas before trying to ascertain their origin. 
Mr. Mill constantly appeals to associations, as 
Locke did to ideas. Locke maintained that all 
our ideas come from sensation and reflection, 
and Mr. Mill claimed that all our ideas are 
derived from sensation by means of association. 
Mr. Mill frequently makes admissions fatal to 
this theory. I will call attention to a few of 
them, which will make you think that he ought 
to belong to the intuitional school. In his 
Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Phil- 
osophy, page 126, Mr. Mill says: ''We know 
some things immediately and intuitively.'* In 



518 CULTURA. 

the introduction to his Logic, section 4, Mr. 
Mill says : " Truths are known to us in two 
ways; some are known directly and of them- 
selves, and some through the medium of other 
truths. The former are the subject of intuition 
or consciousness, the latter of inference. The 
truths known by intuition are the original 
premises from which all others are inferred." 
What could an intuitional philosopher ask more 
than this? He confirms all this also in his 
work on Utilitarianism, page 51 : "To be inca- 
pable of proof by reasoning is common to all 
first principles, of our knowledge as well as of 
conduct." In this he clearly teaches that first 
principles can not be proven. Mr. Mill's 
admissions are sufficient to knock the prop from 
under the edifice of sensationalism. 

In reference to the general tendency of Mr. 
MilPs philosophy, we present the following : 

1. Mr. Mill does not deny the existence of 
God, but he does deny his infinity. This 
involves him in great difficulty; for to deny 
that God is infinite is to make him finite like 
man. He claims that his philosophy does not 
in any way interfere with religion. He advises 



CULTTJRA. 619 

the theist, in his debates with the atheist, 
always to stick to the argument from design. 
This is all well ; but the argument from the sub- 
stantial and spiritual nature of man is cut oflP 
by the sensational philosophy, which makes 
mind a mere series of feelings. 

2. Mr. Mill admits that if there is a God it is 
probable that he has revealed his will to man. 
(1) It is then probable that we have a revelation 
from God. Even the leader of the sensational 
school admits this. (2) It is quite certain that 
God first spoke to man, or man never could 
have spoken. William Von Humboldt says : 
" Man is man only by means of speech ; but in ] 
order to invent speech, he must be already man." ' 
(3) The Bible contains evidence in itself that it 
is a revelation from God; but this subject we 
have already discussed. 

3. The utilitarianism of Mr. Mill is not a 
very good system of morality. I have discussed 
utilitarianism elsewhere, and will only add a 
few words here. While Mr. Mill admits that ad- 
vanced man has a conscience and moral ideas, 
his theory can give no rational reason for their 
existence. Utilitarianism does not have suffi- 






520 CULTURA. 

cient motive power to influence man to virtue, 
and deter him from vice. It would substitute 
the writings of Marcus Aurelius for the Bible, 
which are as cold as an iceberg compared with 
the spiritual power contained in the Gospel of 
Christ. The light of the Bible is as the sun 
compared to the meteoric light in the medita- 
tions of the Roman emperor. 

SECTION II. THOMAS H. HUXLEY. 

This great scientist was born in Ealing, En- 
gland, in 1825. His early education was car- 
ried on chiefly at home under the direction of 
his father. In 1845 he received the degree of 
M. B. from the University of London. In 
1846 he joined the medical service of the Royal 
Navy, and did much scientific work while hold- 
ing this position. In 1853 he resigned his po- 
sition in the navy, and became professor of nat- 
ural history in the Royal School of Mines. In 
1870 he was president of the British Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, and in 1872 
he became secretary of the Royal Society. From 
1870 to 1872 he served on the London School 
Board ; and was especially noted for his opposi- 



CULTURA. 521 

tion to the Eoman Catholic idea of education. 
Mr. Huxley has made a number of scientific dis- 
coveries, and was the first to extend to man 
Darwin^s theory of natural selection. He has 
made admissions in reference to this theory that 
appear fatal to it. 

In later years Dr. Huxley has taken a good 
deal of interest in metaphysics. He published 
an address on Descartes, and defended the study 
of metaphysics in the Popular Science Monthly. 

In philosophy, Dr. Huxley is a disciple of 
James Mill, and thus bears a close relationship 
to John Stuart Mill. James Mill was a disciple 
of David Hume ; and Dr. Huxley has been 
much interested in bringing before the public 
the writings of the skeptical Scotchman. Mr. 
Huxley is too dogmatic for a philosopher ; he 
appears to be more of a special pleader than one 
in search for truth. Mr. Darwin proclaimed 
him the philosopher of his school, and he seems 
to write on philosophical subjects with a precon- 
ceived theory in his mind. 

While Professor Huxley is a master in biol- 
ogy, he is certainly not so great in philosophy. 
A few facts revealed to our inner consciousness, 



522 CULTUKA. 

as the facts of philosophy are to our senses, will 
completely demolish his entire system of philos- 
ophy. He claims with Hume that the mind per- 
ceives only impressions and ideas. According 
to this theory, we can know nothing of either 
the outer or inner world. He thus becomes a 
complete agnostic. All persons who are not 
philosophers know that sense-perception gives 
us a knowledge of things. We know things, 
and not simply appearances. Professor Huxley 
adopts Bain^s theory of relations, and makes 
them consist in coexistence, succession, and 
similarity. He seems to abolish the relations of 
quantity on which mathematics depend ; and of 
identity, which certifies to the souPs continued 
existence ; and of causation, which enables us 
to reason from order and design in nature back 
to nature's God. This theory is inferior to the 
materialistic theory of Condillac, which did 
teach that the mind had power to transform its 
sensations into at least a few elevated ideas. 

Prof Huxley claims that he is no materialist, 
but simply an agnostic. In one sense this is 
true; for he denies the substantial nature of 
both mind and matter. It is strange that any 



CULTURA. 523 

psychologist can not see that sense-perception 
gives us a knowledge of matter, and self-con- 
sciousness gives us a knowledge of mind. In 
another sense Prof. Huxley is certainly a mate- 
rialist, for he makes matter the basis of all 
mental action. All reason and experience con- 
tradict this doctrine; for molecules of matter 
can not think, feel, or discriminate between 
good and evil. At this point he and Prof. 
Tyndall part company; for that distinguished 
scientist teaches that it is not in the power of 
man to span the chasm between mind and 
matter. 

Prof. Huxley never loses an opportunity to 
say something against Christianity. In the 
Nineteenth Century y in referring to C. Gore, in 
Lux Mundi, he says : " I confess I soon lose my 
way when I try to follow those who walk deli- 
cately among ' types ' and allegories. A certain 
passion for clearness forces me to ask, bluntly, 
whether the writer means to say that Jesus did 
not believe the stories in question, or that he 
did ? When Jesus spoke, as of a matter of fact, 
that the flood came and destroyed them all, did 
he believe that the deluge really took place or 



624 CULTURA. 

not? It seems to me that, as the narrative 
mentions Noah's wife, and his son's wives, 
there is good scriptural warranty for the state- 
ment that the antediluvians married and were 
given in marriage; and I should have thought 
that their eating and drinking might be assumed 
by the firmest believer in the literal truth of the 
story. Moreover, I venture to ask what sort of 
value, as an illustration of God's method of deal- 
ing with sin, has an account of an event that 
never happened ? If no flood swept the careless 
people away, how is the warning of more worth 
than the cry of 'wolf when there is no wolf? 
If Jonah's three days' residence in the whale is 
not an admitted reality, how could it warrant 
belief in the coming resurrection ? If Lot's wife 
\ » was not turned into a pillar of salt, the bidding 
those who turned back from the narrow path to 
remember it is morally about on a level with 
telling a naughty child that a bogy is coming to 
fetch it away." Study carefully the following 
reply to the above : " Dr. Huxley seems never 
to lose a chance to have a fling at Christianity. 
Let any rash theologian venture for a moment 
into the region of science, let him come in the 



CULTURA. 625 

most conciliatory spirit, wishing to make peace 
between religion, or even theology, and science, 
and he is instantly assaulted, and generally in a 
most unscientific temper, by one whose business 
it is to know nothing of human passions. Such 
being the disposition and habit of Dr. Huxley, it 
was uot to l)e expected that he should keep aloof 
from the discussion excited by the publication of 
' Lux Mundij and he seems to derive g.eat satis- 
faction from the conclusion at which he arrives, 
that both sides in the controversy are equally in 
the wrong. It is no use, he says, trying to 
reconcile the authorities of the New Testament 
with recent theories of the origin of the Old 
Testament. Unless the contents of the Old 
Testament, he says, are historical in the sense of 
the received accounts of the execution of Charles 
I., then the references to them in the New Tes- 
tament can not be justified ; and in that case the 
New Testament must go with the Old. . . . 
One story of which he makes sport more than 
once is the turning of Lot's wife into a pillar of 
salt. His speaking of this as the transubstautia- 
tion of Lot's wife reminds us of the kind of taste 
he showed with the Bishop of Petersborough, in 



626 CULTURA. 

his allusion to the ^ Gergasene pigs.* Surely the 
story of Lot's wife is a perfectly intelligible one. 
A person caught and smothered in a tempest, of 
the kind which often rages in the valley of the 
Dead Sea, might quite properly be spoken of 
as being turned into a pillar of salt. But 
as we follow the criticisms of Prof. Huxley 
we do not feel that he has proved to us 
the uselessness of the Old Testament, or the 
untrust worthiness of the Founder of Chris- 
tianty. Supposing that we admit that there 
have been great differences between the methods 
adopted by theologians in the exposition and 
defense of the Bible and of the gospel — and 
these two are not identical — what inference 
must be drawn from such a concession ? Surely 
not that the thing defended is indefensible? 
Men of science have differed widely. One 
generation has overthrown the work of its 
predecessor, to be itself left behind by that 
which came after it. Or suppose that we con- 
fess our inability to decide between Mr. Gore 
and Dr. Liddon, is that a reason why we should 
reduce the contents of the Old Testament to 
legend, or deny the authority of the New Testa- 



CULTURA. 527 

ment? Supposing that it should finally be 
settled that the Old Testament Scriptures con- 
sist of a series of documents, edited and com- 
piled by writers living long after the time of 
their origin, and that these documents so edited 
were employed by prophets sent from God to 
illustrate the divine dealings with the world, 
how should such a theory interfere with their 
value or their authority ? " 

SECTION III. HERBERT SPENCER. 

Mr. Spencer is certainly a very original think- 
er ; but like all other even great men, he has 
been much influenced by his surroundings. 
Even so original a genius as was Plato was 
greatly influenced by the early Greek philoso- 
phers. It is evident to all students of philos- 
ophy that Mr. Spencer obtained his first 
principles from Sir William Hamilton. Hamil- 
ton was the greatest philosopher of the British 
Empire when Spencer was a boy, and was much 
under the influence of the Kantian philosophy. 
He argued that the mind only knows phenomena 
in the sense of appearances; that all knowledge 
is relative, and that we can know nothing of 



628 CULTURA. 

the reality of things. Dr. Mansel used this 
philosophy in his opposition to German ration- 
alism. This theory of nescience is simply the 
opposite extreme of the German rationalistic 
theory. As Strauss pushed the philosophy of 
Hegel to an extreme, so Spencer carried the 
philosophy of Hamilton to a great extreme. 

Mr. Spencer does not claim to be an atheist 
or a materialist, and we are not disposed to call 
him such, whatever may be the tendency of his 
theory. In fact he does not claim to interfere 
with religion at all ; but includes it in his phil- 
osophy of the Unknowable. I can see clearly 
how a man may be a Spencerian in philosophy, 
and yet be a firm believer in Christianity. 
Revelation may make known to us that which is 
unknown and even unknowable so far as philos- 
ophy is concerned. Mr. Spencer not only 
claims the unknown to be a reality, but in fact 
the only reality. He also argues that the 
known implies the unknown. In his First Prin- 
ciples, Mr. Spencer uses this language : ^^ The 
belief in a Power of which no limit in time or 
space can be conceived, is that fundamental ele- 
ment in religion which survives all changes of 



CULTURA. 529 

form.'' As our philospher knows the unknown 
to be the cause of the known, he certainly 
knows this much about the unknown ; and this 
will harmonize with tlie philosophy of Aristotle, 
which teaches that things are known in their 
causes. We recommend to all agnostics a care- 
ful study of the following language of Mr. 
Spencer : " Amid all mysteries, there remains 
the one absolute certainty — we are ever in the 
presence of the infinite and eternal energy, from 
whom all things proceed." '• From whom all 
things proceed" certainly implies personality 
on the part of the ultimate cause of all visible 
phenomena. While there is much in Mr. 
Spencer's philosophy that seems to point in a 
materialistic direction, there is also much that 
clearly shows that no system of materialism is 
sufficient to explain the phenomena of the uni- 
verse. 

We believe the following to be the principal 
mistakes in the philosophy of Herbert Spencer : 

1. Mr. Spencer tries to accomplish by evolu- 
tion more than there is in it. Evolution can 
not account for the ultimate cause of things : for, 
if true, it can be nothing more than the process 



530 CULTURA. 

by winch God works. It can not interfere with 
final cause, for the origin of things not only 
requires a cause, but also an intelligent cause. 
Matter can not account for its own origin, 
much less can it account for the origin of mind. 
The difference between the mind of man and 
that of an oyster certainly required the infinite 
to span it, whatever may have been the process 
by which the bridge was erected. The same 
thing may be said in reference to the lowest 
form of life and the lifeless condition of the 
mineral kingdom. 

2. In his Laws of the Unknowable, Mr. 
Spencer lays down principles which he contra- 
dicts in his Laws of the Knowable. In one 
place he claims that the creation and destruction 
of matter are impossible, because inconceivable; 
yet in another he devotes several pages to show 
that inconceivability is no test of reality. If 
Mr. Spencer's philosophy can be used against 
religion, it cfen be used with equal force against 
science; for the ideas involved in religion are 
certainly as conceivable as those involved in 
science. If we deny religious knowledge on 
the ground of its limitation^ on precisely the 



CULTURA. 631 

same ground we can deny all scientific knowl- 
edge. If religion is impossible because it 
involves unthinkable ideas, the same thing can 
be said of science. If a conception of the self- 
existence of God is an untenable hypothesis, 
then a conception of the fundamental reality, of 
which Mr. Spencer says so much, is also an 
untenable hypothesis. If a conception of the 
eternity of God is an untenable hypothesis, then 
a conception of the eternity of the fundamental 
reality is also an untenable hypothesis. I feel 
quite certain that I can use Mr. Spencer's phil- 
osophy with as much force against science as it 
can be used against religion. 

3. Mr. Spencer's system of ethics is quite 
deficient. He defines conduct as good which 
accomplishes its end. " Always acts are called 
good or bad, as they are well or ill adjusted to 
ends.'' According to this view, the poison 
which was given to Socrates was good, for it 
certainly accomplished the end for which given. 
Mr. Spencer does not make moral good a volun- 
tary act, but simply whatever on the whole 
promotes pleasure. This utilitarian theory here 
is very deficient; for a thing, to be morally 



532 CULTURA. 

good, must be intended by the agent to promote 
happiness. Mr. Spencer says some beautiful 
things in reference to means to ends. He 
admits that beyond known phenomena there is 
an unknown power to produce them. In the 
combination of adjustments we find in the visi- 
ble universe things tending to happiness; so 
there is evidence that the author of the universe 
is an intelligent being, who designed the happi- 
ness of his creatures. The moral nature of 
man also points back to the character of his 
author; and moral law shows that there must 
be a moral lawgiver as the final cause of the 
moral universe. God is the moral lawgiver of 
the universe, and any system of ethics that seeks 
to ignore him will always prove itself a consum- 
mate failure. In his system Mr. Spencer does 
not give sufficient attention to the quality of a 
deed, to the nature of motive, and to the char- 
acter of the agent. 

4. Mr. Spencer denies the freedom of the 
human will. In this position he opposes the 
greatest psychologists and moralists of all ages, 
and contradicts the plainest declaration of self- 
consciousness. If there is anything in this 



CULTUBA. 533 

world that a man does know it is his ability to 
act when he sees proper so to do. The effect of 
this theory upon morals is plain ; for if man is 
not a free moral agent then he is not responsible 
for his conduct. Mr. Spencer, as well as all 
others of his school, contradicts every day of life 
the theory maintained in his philosophy. Mr. 
Spencer has taught much truth, but he needs a 
Christian philosopher to declare unto him the 
unknown God. 

SECTION IV. MATTHEW ARNOLD. 

Matthew Arnold, son of Thomas Arnold, was 
born in England in 1822. He was educated at 
Winchester, Rugby and Oxford. He won the 
Newdegate prize for a poem entitled "Crom- 
well." He is one of the finest writers on ques- 
tions of education and culture in the English 
language. There is much in his style to admire, 
and all students of a higher culture will ever 
be grateful to Matthew Arnold. 

In his theory of culture I find much that I 
can heartily indorse. The following points are 
wortby of careful thought : (1) Perfection is to 
be found in the soul of man, and not in any 



534 CULTURA. 

external good. This harmonizes with the lan- 
guage of Jesus that the kingdom of God is 
within you. (2) He teaches that true culture 
consists in constant growth, in forgetting the 
past, and reaching forth to the future. (3) He 
teaches that we can not reach perfection in 
simply seeking our own good, but that we must 
also embrace the good of others; not to look 
every man on his own things, but also on the 
things of others. His system thus far certainly 
harmonizes with the Bible. 

While we find many things in Mr. Arnold's 
system of culture to heartily commend, we feel 
that he makes one very great mistake, which 
greatly mars his whole system. He knows too 
much about man's nature to entirely ignore the 
religious element, but he makes religion subor- 
dinate in his system of culture. It is just to 
state that he says that it goes beyond religion 
" as religion is generally conceived among us." 
It is certainly true that many have a poor con- 
ception of the true design of religion. While 
Mr. Arnold had the front of his head well 
developed, it is said that he was flat on the top 
of the head. The front part of the top head 



CULTURA. 535 

evidently represents the highest culture. It is 
not possible for man to reach the highest culture 
without a proper model from without. The 
history of the heathen world teaches this fact. 
Christianity furnishes the proper model for the 
perfection of humanity. The intellectual cul- 
ture of the Athenians has been a model for all 
succeeding generations; but they lacked in the 
religious element. Their religion was confined 
to narrow bounds. Jerusalem, however, fur- 
nished the religion adapted to all races; and as 
the Greeks furnished a language which was a 
suitable medium for the dissemination of a 
universal religion, we find Athens and Jeru- 
salem united in presenting to the world a 
model for the highest culture and the most 
perfect civilization. 

Mr. Arnold thinks that Shakespeare could 
not have enjoyed the society of the Pilgrim 
Fathers. That may be true, for the Pilgrim 
Fathers were far from presenting to the world 
that completeness of character taught in the 
New Testament. It is also true that Shakes- 
peare was far from being a model in the depart- 
ment of moral culture. John Milton was a 



636 CULTURA. 

Puritan, and also a man of the highest culture. 
His moral character was far superior to that of 
Shakespeare. This is also a sufficient answer 
to all that Mr. Arnold says in reference to 
Luther and Goethe. 

While there is a skeptical tendency in the 
writings of Mr. Arnold, he makes admissions 
which largely counteract it. When asked if he 
believed in the personality of God, he replied 
thus : " We neither affirm God to be a person 
nor to be a thing. We are not at all in a posi- 
tion to affirm God to be the one or the other. 
All we can really say of our object of thought is 
that it operates.^^ (God and the Bible, pp. 97, 98). 

Mr. Arnold admits his deficiency in talents 
for metaphysical study. In his work entitled 
God and the Bible he says: *' Probably this 
limited character of our doubting arose from 
our want of philosophy and philosophical prin- 
ciples, which is so notorious, and which is so 
often and so uncharitably cast into our teeth." 

Mr. Arnold taught that we are " woven by a 
power not our own.'* The philosopher can 
readily show that this power is the personal 
author of the universe. Frederick the Great, 



CULTURA. 537 

although skeptic, was not an atheist; for he 
could not see how an entity which had no 
intellect or moral emotion could have placed 
such in the constitution of man. Daniel Web- 
ster said that the greatest thought he ever had 
was his personal responsibility to a personal 
God. The greatest thinkers of the world have 
taught that in every fully endowed man there is 
an instinctive obligation to a personal God. 

SECTION V. EGBERT G. INGERSOLL. 

Mr. IngersoU is specially noted for his reck- 
less statements about the Bible. He does not 
appear to respect any authority, and assumes 
positions as proved that the scholarship of the 
world is clearly against. He ridicules Jehovah; 
but, of course, a son can make sport of his 
father when he wants to play the fool. 

Mr. IngersoU says : " Each nation has created 
a god, and the god has always resembled his 
creators." That is certainly true of gods that 
men have made ; but all scholars know that 
back of the polytheism of the nations there are 
traditions pointing to the true and living God. 
Man is so constituted that he will worship, and 



538 CULTURA. 

he becomes assimilated to the character of that 
which he worships. It is a fact that idolatrous^ 
nations have never been able to extricate them- 
selves from idolatry. Truth had to be presented 
from without, and that truth was the Gospel of 
Christ, contained in the Bible. You find no 
nation highly civilized which does not believe 
in the Bible. The Bible and civilization go 
together. 

Mr. Ingersoll spends his time in trying to 
point out the mistakes of Moses at several hun- 
dred dollars per night. If Moses could speak, 
what do you suppose he would have to say 
about the mistakes of the infidel? When he 
was alive it was rather dangerous to withstand 
him. Pharaoh tried it, and soon became sick 
of his bargain. Jannes and Jambres withstood 
Moses, and went to the bottom of the sea. 
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram undertook the 
same thing, and sank so far beneath the earth 
that they have not been heard from sinc\ I 
am indebted to H. L. Hastings, of Boston, for 
the following: "It would be interesting to 
hear a military leader and legislator, like Moses, 
the man of God, who, after he was eighty years 



CULTURA. 639 

old, commanded for forty years an army of six 
hundred thousand meu, emancipating, organ- 
izing, and giving laws to a nation which has 
maintained its existence for more than thirty 
stormy centuries, give his candid opinion con- 
cerning the mistakes of a colonel of cavalry, 
whose military career is said to have included 
one single engagement, in which he was chased 
into a hog-yard, and surrendered to a boy of 
sixteen, after which, as soon as exchanged, he 
heroically resigned his commission in the face 
of the enemy, subsequently turned his attention 
to managing a swindling whisky ring, discuss- 
ing theology, blaspheming God, and criticising 
dead men, who can not answer him. " 

The skeptical lecturer does not hesitate to 
make the most groundless statements in reference 
to the teaching of the Bible. He claims that the 
Bible teaches slavery, polygamy, and almost 
every other abomination ; when every candid 
critic knows that the Bible has eradicated these 
things. A number of students belonging to an 
eastern college attended one of Mr. Ingersoll's 
lectures. They were so influenced by his so- 
phistries that they addressed the following note to 



540 CULTURA. 

one of the professors : " Dear Professor : Are not 
IngersolPs arguments unanswerable? What are 
you going to do abou-t it?'' The professor gave 
them the following logical and pointed reply; 

*' You say there are so many infidels. Boys, 
you are mistaken. An infidel is an abnormal 
growth. Nature feels funny once in a while, and 
creates a freak — the living skeleton, the fat 
woman, the two-headed girl. So there is about 
one infidel to a million sane men. He is a freak, 
and he pays. Men pay to hear Robert abuse 
religion as they do to see Simmons wind up his 
watch with his toes. Not that a watch is any 
better being wound up with his toes, but it isn't 
every slouch that can do it. A genuine infidel 
is a moral monstrosity worth seeing. 

" The most of these noisy fellows are amateur 
infidels. They talk IngersoU in fair weather, and 
pray themselves hoarse every time it thunders. 
A well developed case of cholera morbus will 
knock their infidelity out of them and leave 
them in a cold sweat like a china dog in an ice- 
house. I know them. The most of them are 
like the boy who runs away from home and 
comes back to sleep with father at nights. These 



CULTURA. 541 

men are only playing ' I spy * with their con- 
sciences, and you can find them every time. 
They are no more genuine infidels than a news- 
boy is an editor. They only retail somebody 
else's ideas. They are striving against their 
natures as the model farmer who thought his 
beans were coming up wrong end to. God 
knows best, and he has not made a failure of the 
race. 

" Then again, boys, take a look around you 
when you invest another fifty cents in liberty, 
and compare the crowd with the people you find 
in almost any church. Is it the odor of sanctity 
you smell ? Hardly, boys, hardly. But you can 
eat peanuts there and choke on the shells while 
you applaud the funny jokes about the heaven, 
where you know in your hearts you hope your 
mother is, or hear the humble Nazarene ridiculed, 
who you think, and always will think, gave a 
home to your weary old father when he left the 
earth. The kind of liberty Ingersoll retails is 
very expensive, and comes out in blotches, so I 
have heard.'' 

Some seem to think, because Mr. Ingersoll is 
a lawyer, he is well prepared to weigh evidence. 



542 CULTURA. 

Please give your attention, for a short time, to 
the testimony of the greatest writer on evidence 
this country has produced. Dr. Simon Green- 
leaf, the greatest writer on the law of evidence in 
the world, has written an unanswerable work on 
the Testimony of the Evangelists. The North 
American Keview has the following in reference 
to Dr. Greenleaf 's work : " It is the production 
of an able and profound lawyer, a man who has 
grown gray in the halls of justice and the schools 
of jurisprudence ; a writer of the highest author- 
ity on legal subjects, whose life has been spent in 
weighing testimony and sifting evidence, and 
whose published opinions on the rules of evidence 
are received as authoritative in all the English 
and American tribunals ; for fourteen years the 
highly respected colleague of the late Justice 
Story, and also the honored head of the most 
distinguished and prosperous school of English 
law in the world." The London Law Maga- 
zine thus speaks of the same work : " It is no 
mean honor to America that her schools of juris- 
prudence have produced two of the first writers 
and best esteemed legal authorities of this cen- 
tury — the great and good man, Judge Story, and 



CULTURA. 543 

his worthy and associate, Professor Greenleaf. 
Upon the existing Law of Evidence (by Green- 
leaf) more light has shone from the New World 
than from all the lawyers who adorn the courts 
of Europe.^' Dr. Greenleaf lays down the follow- 
ing rule of evidence : '^ In trials of fact, by oral 
testimony, the proper inquiry is not whether it is 
possible that the testimony may be false, but 
whether there is sufficient probability that it is 
true." We commend this rule to Mr. Inger- 
soll and his followers; for all who are familiar 
with the writings of Col. Ingersoll know that he 
constantly violates it. Hear Dr. Greenleaf in con- 
clusion : " It should be observed that the subject 
of inquiry is a matter of fact, and not of abstract 
mathematical truth. The latter alone is suscep- 
tible of that high degree of proof usually termed 
demonstration, which excludes the possibility of 
error, and which therefore may reasonably be 
required in support of every mathematical deduc- 
tion. But the proof of matters of fact rests upon 
moral evidence alone, by which is meant not 
merely that species of evidence which we do not 
obtain either from our own senses, from intui- 
tion, or from demonstration. In the ordinary 



544 CULTURA. 

affairs of life we do not require nor expect demon- 
strative evidence, because it is inconsistent with 
the nature of matters of fact, and to insist on its 
production would be unreasonable and absurd. 
And it makes no difference whether the facts to 
be proved relate to this life or to the next, the 
nature of the evidence required being in both 
cases the same. The error of the skeptic consists 
in pretending or supposing that there is a differ- 
ence in the nature of the things to be proved; 
and in demanding demonstrative evidence con- 
cerning things which are not susceptible of any- 
other than moral evidence alone, and of which 
the utmost that can be said is, that there is no 
reasonable doubt about their truth." 



PART V. 
CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION 



545 



CHAPTER I. 
Homer and the Dawn of Greek Civilization. 

Troy fell before the Greeks; and in its turn 
the war of Troy is now falling before the 
critics. That ten years' death-struggle, in 
which the immortals did not disdain to mingle, 
those massive warriors, with their grandeur and 
their chivalry, have, like an unsubstantial pag- 
eant, faded before the wand of these modern 
enchanters; and the Iliad and the Odyssey, and 
the other early legends, are discovered to be no 
more than the transparent myths of an old cos- 
mogony, the arabesques and frescoes with which 
the imagination of the Ionian poets set off and 
ornamented the palace of the heavens, the 
struggle of the earth, and the labors of the sun 
through his twelve signs. 

Nay, with Homer himself it was likely at 
one time to have fared no better. His works, 
indeed, were indestructible, yet, if they could not 
be destroyed, they might be disorganized; and 
with their instinctive hatred of facts, the critics 
fastened on the historical existence of the poet. 

B47 



548 CULTURA. 

The origin of the poems was distributed among 
the clouds of prehistoric imagination; and, 
instead of a single inspired Homer for their 
author, we were required to believe in some 
extraordinary spontaneous generation, or in 
some collective genius of an age which igno- 
rance had personified. — Froude. 

THE PERSONALITY OF HOMER. 

The critics have not been able to destroy the 
personality of the greatest of Greek poets; it 
would be almost as difficult a task as to destroy 
the personality of Shakespeare. The person- 
ality of Homer has impressed itself upon the 
very face of civilization; and it is positively 
indestructible. It is probably true that there 
was a literary age preceding Homer, and that 
he made use of preceding documents; but this 
only tends to illuminate his personality. I really 
think that archaeology has shown that writing 
had made considerable progress before the days 
of Homer; and it was certainly natural that he 
should make use of the culture which preceded 
him. All men — poets as well as others — are 
greatly influenced by their environment. I am 
inclined to think that Homer was the culmina- 



CULTURA. 549 

tion of ancient Achaean culture. He presented 
the highest and the best in the culture of this 
distinguished tribe. 

Mr. Froude uses the following important 
and pointed language: "But the person of a 
poet has been found more difficult of elimina- 
tion than a mere fact of history. Facts, it was 
once said, were stubborn things; but in our 
days we have changed all that ; a fact, under the 
knife of a critic, splits in pieces, and is dis- 
sected out of belief with incredible readiness. 
The helpless thing lies under his hand like a 
foolish witness in a law court, when brow- 
beaten by an unscrupulous advocate, and is 
turned about and twisted this way and that way, 
till in its distraction it contradicts itself, and 
bears witness against itself; and, to escape from 
torture, at last flies utterly away, itself half 
doubting its own existence. 

"But it requires more cunning weapons to 
destroy Homer ; like his own immortals, he may 
be wounded, but he can not have the life carved 
out of him by the prosaic strokes of common 
men. His poems have but to be disintegrated 
to unite again, so strong are they in the indi- 
viduality of their genius. The singleness of 



550 CULTURA. 

their structure^ — ^the unity of design — ^the dis- 
tinctness of drawing in the characters — ^the 
inimitable pecuHarities of manner in each of 
them — seem to place beyond serious question, 
after the worst onslaught of the Wolfian critics, 
that both Iliad and Odyssey, whether or not the 
work of the same mind, are at least each of 
them singly the work of one." 

homer's place in literature. 

It has been the almost universal opinion of 
the most distinguished critics of the past that 
Homer was the greatest of all Epic poets. His 
marvelous sublimity and lifelike pictures of 
Greek and Trojan life have scarcely ever been 
equaled, and certainly never surpassed, by the 
greatest poets of all ages. It should make all 
writers modest and cause them to respect the 
past, when, as a matter of fact, the greatest 
writer of all ages lived more than three thou- 
sand years ago. Homer's place in literature 
will ever be the very highest seat. The old 
blind bard is immortal. 

Mr. Froude says: "Let them leave us 
Homer, however, and on the rank and file of 
facts they may do their worst; we can be indif- 



CULTURA. 551 

ferent to, or even thankful for, what slaughter 
they may make. In the legends of the Theo- 
gonia, in that of Zeus and Cronus, for instance, 
there is evidently a metaphysical allegory; in 
the legends of Persephone, or of the Dioscuri, 
a physical one; in that of Athene, a profoundly 
philosophical one; and fused as the entire sys- 
tem was in the intensely poetical conception of 
the early thinkers, it would be impossible, even 
if it were desirable, at this time of day, to dis- 
entangle the fibres of these various elements. 
Fact and theory, the natural and the super- 
natural, the legendary and the philosophical, 
shade off so imperceptibly one into the other, in 
the stories of the Olympians, or of their first 
offspring, that we can never assure ourselves 
that we are on historic ground, or that, ante- 
cedent to the really historic age, there is any 
such ground to be found anywhere. The old 
notion, that the heroes were deified men, is no 
longer tenable. With but few exceptions, we 
can trace their names as the names of the old 
gods of the Hellenic or Pelasgian races; and if 
they appeared later in human forms, they de- 
scended from Olympus to assume them. 
Diomed was the ^toHan sun-god; Achilles was 



552 CULTURA. 

worshiped in Thessaly long before he became 
the hero of the tale of Troy. The tragedy of 
the house of Atreus, and the bloody bath of 
Agamemnon, as we are now told with appear- 
ance of certainty, are humanized stories of the 
physical struggle of the opposing principles of 
life and death, light and darkness, night and 
day, winter and summer." 

THE ILIAD AND THE ODYSSEY. 

I can not agree with those who look upon 
the contents of the Iliad and Odyssey as pure 
fiction. That there is a fictitious element in 
them appears to my mind quite certain; but 
when I read these immortal works, I can not 
otherwise than see in them an historical basis. 
In fact, archaeology, in recent years, has thrown 
much light upon Trojan life; and this impor- 
tant science is making it quite evident that while 
Homer spoke of gods, he also spoke of real 
men. These great poems not only have a ficti- 
tious element in them, but they also describe 
real Greek and Trojan life as it existed at that 
time. Their ships and men are such as existed 
at that time in Greece and Troy. 

I have read carefully both sides of the ques- 



CULTURA. 553 

tion, and I incline to the view that Homer was 
substantially the author of both the Iliad and 
the Odyssey. The Iliad he probably wrote 
when comparatively a young man; and the 
Odyssey, after he had nearly reached his three- 
score years and ten. He doubtless used docu- 
ments that had come down from time imme- 
morial; and I believe it is just to the critics to 
also state that gifted editors have probably 
made some additions to both the Iliad and the 
Odyssey — more to the Iliad than to the Odyssey. 
The Odyssey is the better story; but there are 
parts of the Iliad which are far superior to any- 
thing found in the Odyssey, and we are, for 
this reason, compelled to pronounce it the 
greater poem. 

RELIGION IN THE ILIAD AND THE ODYSSEY. 

Homer was regarded by the Greeks who 
lived after him as the founder of their religion. 
Herodotus considers that Homer and Hesiod 
lived four hundred years before his time, and 
that it was they who framed a theogony for the 
Greeks, gave names to the gods, assigned to 
them honors and arts, and declared their several 
forms. These writers accordingly formed a 



554 CULTURA. 

standard of religious belief; we know that their 
works were the basis of the education of the 
Greek, and they thus provided an early bond 
of national unity. — Menzies. 

Homer makes Zeus the supreme God, and 
the maker of gods and men. Sometimes Zeus 
is greatly limited by the poet, and becomes one 
of a community of deities. He is represented 
as having high moral attributes, and is disposed 
to deal justly towards others. It is true that he 
deceives Agamemnon; but this is considered as 
just punishment for the unjust conduct of the 
leader of the Greeks. The supreme position of 
Zeus shows a strong monotheistic tendency in 
the Iliad and the Odyssey. The other gods 
were much like the angels in the Old Testa- 
ment, intended to carry out the commands of 
the Supreme Ruler. 

In the Iliad and the Odyssey, we find a 
recognition of Divine Providence. The poet 
could not see how the good man could other- 
wise than prosper; for he looked upon him as 
under the direct care of the gods. The bad 
man, he thought, would certainly be punished. 
Ulysses says: "God looks upon the children of 
men, and punishes the wrong-doers." Eumaeus 



CULTURA. 555 

says: "The gods love not violence and wrong; 
but the man whose ways are righteous, him they 
honor." 

In the Iliad, the future is shadowy; not 
more so, however, than in the Book of Ecclesi- 
astes. The Iliad, like the Old Testament Book 
of Ecclesiastes, does not deny the future state; 
but it emphasizes God's presence in human life, 
and leaves the future to him. The divine pres- 
ence is sufficient in both life and death. The 
Odyssey clearly teaches the future state, and 
that the righteous will be supremely happy in 
Hades. It also teaches the punishment of the 
wicked in the future world. 

The artists took their text in the Iliad and 
the Odyssey, and they made it shine much 
brighter than ever before. These books were 
at the foundation of the highest Greek art, and 
the highest development in architecture con- 
sisted in the temples built to the gods. The 
artists fully recognized the supremacy of Zeus. 
Even Apollo, the god of light, was the prophet 
of his father Zeus. His temple at Delphi was 
the most important in Greece; for it was the 
meeting-place of the Greeks from all countries. 
The worship of Apollo was one of the very 



556 CULTURA. 

highest forms of the Greek religion; it required 
truthfulness and strict purity on the part of the 
worshiper. 

The sculptor came somewhat later than the 
architect, but he worked in harmony with him. 
The text of the Olympian Jove was taken from 
Homer, but the artist greatly illuminated the 
text. The sermon he preached was even higher 
than his text. This great statue, made of ivory 
and gold, for the temple of Olympia, where the 
games were celebrated by united Greece, was 
the masterpiece of the immortal Phidias. James 
Freeman Clarke thus speaks : "The Greek sculp- 
tors, in creating these wonderful ideals, were 
always feeling after God; but for God incar- 
nate, God in man. They sought for and repre- 
sented each divine element in human nature. 
They were prophets of the future development 
of humanity. They showed how man is a par- 
taker of the divine nature. If they humanized 
Deity, they divinized humanity." 

Greek philosophy was constructive rather 
than destructive, and it more fully developed 
the monotheistic tendencies of Homer. It dis- 
cussed many of the same problems that were 
discussed by the prophets of Israel, It is 



CULTURA. 557 

claimed that the Christian sermon is modeled 
after the discourse of the Greek philosopher. 
Even some philosophers went so far as to act 
as pastors for their disciples. 

SOCIETY IN THE ILIAD AND THE ODYSSEY. 

The Greeks of Homer had law, but no 
means of executing it. It is interesting to 
observe how law-abiding they really were. 
When the assembly of the people decided any- 
thing the people readily obeyed the injunctions. 
The Greeks in the Homeric age enjoyed great 
freedom. In times of peace the authority of the 
kings seems to have been simply to preside at 
the assembly of the people. The kings, of 
course, had greater authority in times of war. 

John Ruskin and other social reformers have 
been desiring, if not expecting, a millennium of 
labor. The Greeks had such millennium in 
the days of Homer. All classes worked, and 
even kings presided at the great harvest gath- 
erings. The Greeks not only looked upon labor 
as honorable, but really as beautiful. With 
them all was "one, whether in the earth or in 
the sun." This view of labor is necessary to 
the solution of the labor problem. 



558 CULTURA. 

In the Iliad, there was no slavery; at least, 
so far as men were concerned. In war, men, 
like the modern Japs, seemed to prefer death 
to capture. The vanquished party expected 
death and fought to the finish. In the Odyssey, 
which was written many years after the Iliad, 
we do find men in slavery; and even what the 
moderns call serfdom made its appearance. 

The Greek family is indeed an interesting 
study. Woman in the Homeric age enjoyed 
much liberty, and polygamy at that time does 
not appear to have existed among the Greeks. 
Still, woman was subjected to slavery when cap- 
tured by the enemy. It was so common the 
women accepted it as a necessary result, and 
made the best of it. While the wife of Hector 
bemoaned her fate, she appeared to find some 
consolation in the fact that she would be the 
prize of the great Achilles. The women of the 
Odyssey are superior to those of the Iliad. It 
is difficult to find in all history a more beautiful 
character than was Penelope of Ithaca. She 
resisted the wooers for twenty years, even when 
her own son at times was almost ready to give 
way in despair. Even modern women might 
imitate her. 



CULTURA. 559 

Greek education in Homeric times deserves 
more attention than it has usually received. It 
was at the foundation of a system of culture 
that prepared men for the highest positions in 
life to which any nations have attained. Homer 
was the Bible of the Greeks and the most 
important work in education. The success of 
the Greek system is shown in the fact that it 
produced the greatest leaders in every depart- 
ment of culture. It educated the whole man — 
body, soul and spirit — and, consequently, it pro- 
duced the greatest heroes, the greatest poets, 
the greatest artists and the greatest philosophers 
in the world. 

HOMER AND CIVILIZATION. 

The influence of Homer on Greek civiliza- 
tion and the influence of the Greeks on the 
civilization of the world, clearly show Homer's 
relation to the progress of civilization. Virgil 
obtained his inspiration from Homer, and, in 
turn, he himself was the inspirer of the great 
Dante. John Milton was a student of Homer, 
of Virgil and of Dante; so the marvelous influ- 
ence of the Greek bard has been powerful on 
civilization. 



CHAPTER II. 

Dante and the Dawn of Modern 
Civilization. 

While Dante really represents the Middle 
Ages, he was the morning star of modern civ- 
ilization. He was a great reformer in both 
church and state. He advocated the separation 
of church and state, and thought, as Napoleon 
Bonaparte did centuries afterwards, that it was 
the duty of the church to look after the souls 
of men. He blamed Pope Boniface VIII. as 
the cause of the many woes that had distracted 
Italy, and in his immortal poem he consigns 
this pope to hell. He believed in universal 
peace as it existed in the days of Augustus 
Caesar. While he would not destroy the local 
autonomy of the republics of Italy, he believed 
in a central authority such as existed in the 
early Roman Empire, which could maintain the 
peace of the world. Dante was strictly opposed 
to the temporal power of the Pope. 

Dante was one of the greatest poets of the 
world; only Homer, Goethe, Milton and Shake- 

560 



CULTURA. 561 

speare can be put in his class. Canon Farrar 
classes ^schylus with him. While ^schylus 
was a great poet, I can not otherwise than put 
him in the second class with Virgil, Sophocles 
and others. Anyway, all will agree that Dante 
was one of the first poets of the world. He did 
for the Italian language and literature what 
Homer did for the Greek language and liter- 
ature. Canon Farrar uses the following appro- 
priate language: "It is because such a poet 
seems to me peculiarly fitted to teach and ele- 
vate this age, and to make it blush for its 
favorite vices, that I have ventured to speak of 
him. There is no function which poets can 
fulfill comparable to their high posthumous 
privilege of permanently enriching the blood of 
the world and raising humanity to higher levels. 
Nations that possess such poets as Dante and 
Milton ought never to degenerate. But they 
belong not to nations only, but to all the world. 
If any young men should chance to be among 
my audience to-night, I would earnestly invite 
them to hold high and perpetual companionship 
with such souls as these. And if there should 
be any here who have hitherto found their 
delight in meaner things which dwarf the intel- 



j62 CULTURA. 

lectual faculties and blunt the moral sense, I 
would fain hope that, here and there, one of 
them may be induced to turn away from such 
follies, to breathe the pure air — difficult, eager 
air of severe and holy poems like the 'Divanos; 
Commedia' and the 'Paradise Lost.' " 

Dante was a true representative of the 
spirit of chivalry. It was an age that did much 
for civilization, for it especially elevated woman. 
It led to the great extreme Mariolatry; but it 
rendered woman divine, and every worthy man 
was supposed to be inspired by some woman 
for whom, if necessary, he was ready to die. 
In his "Vita Nuova," Dante graphically describes 
how he fell in love with Beatrice. He says: 
"I speak the truth when I say that at that the 
spirit of life which dwells in the most secret 
chamber of the heart began to tremble so vio- 
lently that I felt it dreadfully in my pulse. 
From that time forward love ruled my soul, and 
I saw in her so many noble and praiseworthy 
qualities, that assuredly it may be said of her 
in the words of the poet Homer: 'She does not 
appear to be the daughter of mortal man, but 
of God.' " Beatrice was married to another at 
the age of twenty and died in her twenty- 



CULTURA. 563 

fourth year. Her death caused the poet the 
greatest grief, and it resulted in his immortal 
work. If the husband would love his wife as 
Dante loved Beatrice, what a powerful influence, 
indeed, would the family have upon civilization. 
Dante was a true patriot, and sincerely 
loved Florence, his native city. In the great 
strife between parties, he declared his patriot- 
ism to be above any party. He worked faith- 
fully for the general welfare of his country. 
After he had been banished for many years and 
the authorities agreed to his return on the 
ground of his penance and paying a fine, he 
made this noble reply: "After enduring the 
sufferings of exile for nearly fifteen years, can 
such a recall be a glorious one to Dante Ali- 
ghieri? Is this the reward of an innocence 
universally acknowledged, of the labors and 
fatigues of unremitting study? Far from a 
man conversant with philosophy to be guilty of 
the senseless pusillanimity that would bespeak 
such baseness of heart, and induce him to offer 
himself up in chains and follow others in the 
path of infamy. Far be it from a man demand- 
ing justice to compromise injustice with money 
and treat his persecutors as if they were his 



564 CULTURA. 

benefactors. No, my fathers, this is not the way 
of returning to my country. If, however, any 
other offer should be made now, or at a future 
time, that shall not detract from the honor 
and reputation of Dante, that offer I will accept 
with no tardy steps. But if by no such can 
Florence be entered, Florence I will never enter. 
What! Can I not everywhere enjoy the sight 
of the sun and stars? Can I not, under every 
part of heaven, meditate upon the most delight- 
ful truths, without first rendering myself in- 
glorious — nay, infamous — to the people and 
republic of Florence? Bread, at least, will not 
fail me." 

The leading idea of Dante was God. To 
know God was life eternal; and this great poet 
considered it the primary purpose of life to 
know God. The love and glory of God were 
always before his mind, and the great universe 
is only a manifestation of God. Dante was a 
higher realist, and the invisible universe was 
the most real thing to him. His great poem is 
the outgrowth of his system of philosophy. His 
theology was that of the Middle Ages, when 
men looked strictly to the realities of the 
unseen. 



CULTURA. 565 

Dante was born at Florence in 1265 A. D., 
and died at Ravenna in 1321. He descended 
from the ancient family of Alighieri, and was: 
thoroughly educated by a relative. He was a 
great reader and became one of the very great- 
est scholars of his day. In fact, he so diligently 
applied himself that he greatly injured his eyes. 
He says : *'I so weakened my eyes with reading, 
that the stars appeared to me studded with a 
kind of whiteness; but, by long rest in cool 
places, and bathing my eyes in pure water, I 
wholly recovered my former sight." 

To understand the life of Dante, we should 
remember that he was a soldier and politician 
as well as a mystic. All these gifts are rare 
in one individual, but they perfectly harmonized 
in the poet Dante. He was a very practical 
politician, and insisted that the welfare of the 
country required of the patriot to rise above 
mere party politics. He was certainly far in 
advance of his age. 

Florence was at that time divided into two 
factions, the Guelfs and the Ghibelines, the 
former supporting the claims of the Pope, and 
the latter the political supremacy of the Em- 
peror. Dante by birth belonged to the party 



566 CULTURA. 

of the Pope, and for a long time co-operated 
with this party. Finally, the party divided into 
the Neri and the Bianchi, the latter more favor- 
able to the cause of the Emperor. Dante v^as 
one of the Priors of the city at the time of this 
division, and was sent on an embassy to Rome. 
Through the influence of Pope Boniface VIIL, 
the party of the Neri got possession of the city, 
and Dante was named among the number to be 
banished. While yet in Rome his property was 
confiscated, and he was banished forever, with 
the penalty of being burnt alive if ever found 
again on Florentine soil. He was not even per- 
mitted to return home and bid adieu to his 
family. 

The poet wandered for twenty years, and 
died in 1321 A. D. at the city of Ravenna. He 
is said to have died of a broken heart. It may 
appear strange, but it is, nevertheless, a fact, 
that many of the greatest lights of civilization 
have been homeless in this world. To illustrate 
this fact, it is only necessary to mention the 
names of Abraham, Moses, Paul and Buddha. 
The sufferings of the great Italian were not in 
vain, for the wanderer produced one of the 
greatest poems of all ages. The "Divine Com- 



CULTURA. 567 

media" is a poem which represents this world 
under an allegory of the next. It marks an 
era in civilization, and it has many valuable 
lessons for even the twentieth century. It is 
also an apotheosis of woman, for Beatrice in 
the "Divine Commedia" spiritualizes the chivalry 
of the Middle Ages. 

INFERNO. 

The Inferno was completed in 1309. It is 
a most graphic picture of the ideas of the 
Middle Ages on the question of future punish- 
ment. The poet consigns such characters as 
Cain, Judas Iscariot, Pope Boniface VIII., and 
many wicked Florentines, to a literal hell of 
eternal physical suffering. 

The following from I. C. Wright, M.A., is 
worthy of careful thought: "To enable us to 
understand the design of Dante's poem, it may 
be useful to take a short review of the time in 
which he wrote. In the beginning of the four- 
teenth century, Italy presents a lamentable pic- 
ture of darkness and misery. At that unhappy 
period, the pure religion of the primitive Chris- 
tians had been wholly corrupted by the innova- 
tions of the Court of Rome. Over all affairs, 



568 CULTURA. 

both ecclesiastical and political, she exercised a 
withering and debasing influence. The faculties 
were enchained, the feelings deadened by the 
inventions of priestcraft and crime encouraged 
by the sale of indulgences. Hence resulted a 
state of morals more gross than can well be con- 
ceived; and so venalized was the church as to 
create a belief in the mind of Dante that the 
usurped temporal power of Papal Rome was, 
indeed, the Antichrist foretold in Revela- 
tions' (Inf. 19:106). The evils thus arising 
from religious abuses were aggravated by the 
violence of party spirit. Guelfs and Ghibelines, 
partisans of the Pope and of the Emperor, car- 
ried on a constant and deadly warfare through- 
out the numerous states into which Italy was 
divided. • The Guelfs had blindly rendered them- 
selves the instruments of the church, and while 
fighting, as they imagined, in the defense of 
their liberties, were unconsciously forging for 
themselves the fetters of a degrading tyranny. 
Too weak to unite Italy under one government, 
and at the same time too powerful to submit to 
the emperors of Germany, the Court of Rome 
preserved her political ascendancy by fomenting 
^he antipathies of the two parties. Whenever 



CULTURA. 569 

her cause appeared declining, foreigners were 
called into its support. Hence, Italy was 
deluged with blood, and her welfare sacrificed 
to ambition and avarice. With this picture 
before our eyes, let us imagine Dante — a being 
of transcendent genius and profound learning, 
imbued with strong religious and patriotic feel- 
ing — roused, as it were, from sleep, in the full 
maturity of his intellect, to the contemplation 
of this sad reality. Let us imagine him in the 
situation he describes, thrown amid a vicious 
generation so corrupted by evil example and 
hardened in iniquity that he might justly 
describe himself as wandering in a rank and 
savage wilderness." 

His environment was such that even the 
virtuous Dante represents himself as wandering 
for a time in this valley of error. He came to 
himself, and, on looking upward, he beheld a 
mountain illuminated by the beams of the Sun 
of Righteousness. He tried to climb the moun- 
tain, but was opposed by three wild beasts — a 
Panther, a Lion and a She- wolf. The Panther 
represented the factions of Florence; the Lion 
represented France, and the She- wolf repre- 
fented the Court of Rome. The poet is driven 



570 CULTURA. 

back into the dark valley, when the shade of 
Virgil appears to him and bids him to ascend 
some other way. Dante concluded that the wolf 
would dominate Italy until God's representative 
under the image of a greyhound would chase 
the wolf back into her native hell. 

Dante, in the meantime, is to awaken the 
Italians from their stupor and prepare them to 
return to the purity and simplicity of the apos- 
tolic church. He has before him the work of 
a great Reformation. He is anxious to pursue 
the new path recommended by Virgil, and 
accepts Virgil as his guide. He throws all his 
energies into his sacred poem, and even calls 
from the dead the Popes who had been instru- 
mental in corrupting Italy. He mercilessly 
exposes their wicked lives by the fearful picture 
he gives of them in the torments of hell. His 
poem is a great social and political reform pro- 
duction. Dante's Inferno represents hell as a 
great pit, extending from the surface of the 
earth to the center, and divided into nine circles 
gradually diminishing in circumference. There 
is running around the mouth of the pit a dark 
valley called Limbo, where are placed worthless 
characters rejected by both heaven and hell. 



CULTURA. 571 

Each of the nine circles is under the guardian- 
ship of a demon, and those who are sent to hell 
are placed in the circle suited to their crimes. 
Pope Nicholas, Boniface and others are placed 
with their heads down and their feet up. They 
are turned topsy-turvy, because they turned 
things that way in this world. Satan is placed 
in the bottomless pit. 

Dante teaches that men are punished accord- 
ing to their deeds, but that men may so sin 
that punishment will be eternal. Certain sins 
carry with them the punishment that is the nat- 
ural result of such sins. The poet is in har- 
mony with New Testament teaching, that man 
has his besetting sin, and that this sin will cer- 
tainly find him out. Men may be guilty of the 
whole catalogue of sins, but when their char- 
acter is studied closely it will be found that 
some particular sin led each person into all his 
troubles. While Dante's Inferno is extremely 
realistic, it should be remembered at the same 
time it is an allegory, and that it represents the 
conduct of men in this world. We very well 
know that men here will commit certain sins of 
which they will never repent, and that they will 
thus fill up their cup of iniquity. 



572 CULTURA. 



PURGATORIO. 



Dante wandered three years longer in France 
and Italy, and completed his Purgatorio. The 
poet made a distinction between the pardon of 
sin and the consequence of sins already com- 
mitted. He believed in pardon, but thought sin 
carried with it certain consequences that 
required expiation. Consequently, you find 
some very good men and women in his Purga- 
torio. As in his Inferno, so in his Purgatorio 
he paints the ideas of his age. It has been 
claimed that the doctrine of purgatory was bor- 
rowed from India and engrafted on the Chris- 
tian system. Be this as it may, it is certain 
that expiation was a fundamental doctrine of 
mediaeval theology. 

I. C. Wright thus speaks of the construction 
of Dante's Purgatorio : "To form an idea of the 
construction of Dante's Purgatory, the reader 
must imagine rising out of the sea a lofty 
mountain in the form of a cone, round which 
run seven circles, or ledges, gradually diminish- 
ing in circumference. Being the reverse of the 
Inferno, an inverted cone would represent its 
figure. The seven circles are appropriated to 



CULTURA. 573 

the punishment of their several crimes, com- 
mencing with the greater crimes, in opposition 
to the Inferno, which commences with the less. 
In a similar way, however, is contrived a grad- 
uated scale of punishment, the circles becoming 
more and more contracted in their circumfer- 
ences, as also rising to a greater altitude. At 
the highest point is situated the Garden of 
Eden, from which the poet ascends to the celes- 
tial Paradise." 

In the Inferno, Dante describes those who 
had gone beyond redemption ; there was no hope 
for those who entered there. In the Purgatorio, 
he describes those who seek true religion, and, 
in order to reach it, are willing to submit them- 
selves to the remedial punishment. Their 
tendency is to good, but their sins have been 
so great that the discipline of Purgatorio is 
necessary in order to wipe out their conse- 
quences. Such is the view of the great poet. 

The following from Dean Farrar will be 
appreciated by our readers: "Round the moun- 
tain of Purgatory run nine terraces, of which 
each is devoted to the punishment of one of the 
seven deadly sins. The penance is on each ter- 
race analogous to the sin. The proud crawl 



574 CULTURA. 

along, bent under huge weights. The once evil 
eyes of the envious are sewn together with iron 
wire. The angry grope their way through a 
dense, bitter, bHnding fog. The slothful are 
hurried round and round in incessant toil. The 
avaricious lie prostrate and weeping on the 
earth. The gluttons and drunkards are pun- 
ished by the emaciation of perpetual hunger. 
The sensual expiate their carnal wickedness in 
perpetual flame. Dante has to pass through 
each terrace — yes, even through that burning 
flame. He shrinks from it, indeed, with death- 
like horror. 'When I was within it,' he says, 
*I would have flung myself into molten glass 
to cool me, so immeasurable was the burning 
there.' But thenceforth he is cleansed from 
sin. He is crowned and mitred over himself. 
H« finds himself under the leaves of a forest, 
tremulous with soft breezes and resonant with 
the songs of birds, where, amid May blossoms, 
flows a stream of purest crystal. A gleam 
flashes through the forest, a sweet melody runs 
through the glowing air, and he seeks a glo- 
rious vision of the triumph of Christ and his 
church, and in it, amid a cloud of flowers shed 
by the hands of angels, his blood thrills to 



CULTURA. 575 

recognize a lady whose white veil is crowned 
with olive. It is Beatrice. Virgil has vanished, 
for human wisdom can do no more." 

Like his Inferno, Dante's Purgatorio is alle- 
gorical. At the very beginning it teaches the 
importance of repentance; for those indolent 
spirits at the foot of the mountain are required 
to wander thirty times as long as they delayed 
repentance before they are even admitted to 
Purgatory. During this time they are placed 
under Cato of Utica, who was noted for a per- 
fect mastery over his passions. The poem 
teaches that all who do not repent of their sins 
will certainly perish. 

The poem is autobiographical. It gives the 
experience of Dante himself. While he was 
weeping at the departure of Virgil, Beatrice 
commands him to weep rather for his own sins. 
She so severely reproached him for the back- 
slidings of the past that even the angels appear 
to intercede for him. Not until he was truly 
penitent was he permitted to be immersed in 
the waters of Lethe. When this is accom- 
plished, he hears the angels sing, "Thou shalt 
wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.'* 

When thus purified, he is ready to look into 
Id 



576 CULTURA. 

the face of Beatrice, and sees reflected in her 
eyes the light of Christ. He is now ready to 
mount up to the Paradiso. 

The Purgatorio teaches that men are pun- 
ished according to their deeds. He who sows 
to the flesh must reap in harmony with his sow- 
ing. This is the law of God, and no one can 
change it, unless the law of cause and effect 
could be changed. The poet pictures the fearful 
consequences of the great apostacy in the 
church ; he sincerely desires reformation and a 
return to primitive Christianity. Not even 
Luther more severely condemned the sins of the 
Roman clergy than did the great Florentine poet. 

PARADISO. 

After Dante had written his Purgatorio, he 
retired to the picturesque mountains which sep- 
arate Tuscany from Modena and Bologna ; and 
in the hospitius of an ancient monastery, "on 
the woody summit of a rock from which he 
might gaze on his ungrateful country, he re- 
viewed his studies in philosophy and theology." 
There, too, in that calm retreat, he commenced 
his Paradiso, the subject of profound medita- 
tions on what was held in highest virtue in the 



CULTURA. 577 

Middle Ages. The themes are theological and 
metaphysical. They are such as interested 
Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventura, Anselm and 
Bernard. They are such as do not interest this 
age — even the most gifted minds — for our 
times are comparatively indifferent to metaphys- 
ical subtleties and speculations. Beatrice and 
Peter and Benedict alike discourse on the recon- 
dite subjects of the Bible in the style of 
mediaeval doctors. The themes are great — ^the 
incarnation, the immortality of the soul, the 
resurrection of the body, salvation by faith, the 
triumph of Christ, the glory of Paradise, the 
mysteries of the divine and human natures; and 
with these disquisitions and reproofs of bad 
popes, and even of some of the bad customs of 
the church, like indulgences, and the corruptions 
of the monastic system. The Paradiso is a 
thesaurus of mediaeval theology, obscure but 
lofty, mixed up with all the learning of the age, 
even of the lives of saints and heroes and kings 
and prophets. St. Peter examines Dante upon 
faith, James upon hope and John upon charity. 
Virgil has here ceased to be his guide; but 
Beatrice, robed in celestial loveliness, conducts 
him from circle to circle and explains the sub- 



578 CULTURA. 

limest doctrines and resolves his moral doubts 
— the object still of his adoration, and inferior 
only to the mother of our Lord, regina angel- 
orum, mater carissima, whom the church even 
then devotedly worshiped and to whom the 
greatest sages prayed. — Dr. John Lord, in 
"Beacon Lights of History." 

There seems now to be a reviving interest in 
the study of Dante. In fact, the Middle 
Ages are better understood than they were a 
century ago. They discussed great themes 
that are of permanent interest; and, while 
their methods and conclusions can not always 
be accepted, the problems will continue to be 
of the greatest interest until they are solved. 
While the Middle Ages went to one extreme, 
even the nineteenth century went to another, 
and we are glad to see that there is a strong 
tendency at the beginning of the twentieth 
century to search for the Golden Mean. The 
Dante societies that are being organized in 
this country, as well as in Europe, show the 
reviving interest in the study of the great poet. 

Dante, with his age, believed in the Ptolemaic 
system; but he also maintained, with other dis- 
tinguished writers, that the planets are inhab- 



CULTURA. 579 

ited. With Beatrice as his guide, he first visits 
the moon, and gives an interesting description 
of its inhabitants. Modern astronomy has 
shown that there is no Hfe on the moon. How 
it may be when there are new heavens and new 
earth, I am not prepared to say. The poet 
next ascends to Mercury, where he meets Jus- 
tinian and converses with him concerning the 
right of the emperors, and also concerning the 
crucifixion of Christ. The third heaven to 
which he ascends is Venus, and the fourth the 
Sun. On the latter he meets St. Francis and 
St. Dominic, who give him a full description of 
their conditions. The fifth heaven to which he 
mounts is the planet Mars. Even recent astron- 
omers think it probable that this planet is in- 
habited. The poet finds here the warriors who 
had died in defense of the faith. The poet 
next mounts to the sixth planet, Jupiter. Here 
he finds those who had been distinguished on 
earth by a love of justice. Finding Beatrice 
increased in beauty, Dante visits Saturn, the 
seventh planet. Here he finds contemplative 
spirits. Beatrice next takes him to the con- 
stellation Gemini, from which he surveys our 
insignificant earth, and wonders how it had so 



580 CULTURA. 

long enlisted the attention of immortal beings. 
Here he converses with Peter, James and John. 
Dante next reaches the fixed stars, where he 
sees Gk)d himself. The poet here describes the 
superhuman loveliness of Beatrice. 

In the Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, 
Dante allegorically represents the three stages 
of human existence — the miseries of sin in the 
first, in the second the struggles of virtue, and 
in the third peace with God. 

The influence of Dante upon civilization has 
been great. He marks the line between the 
Middle Ages and the modern world. He pre- 
pared the way for Michael Angelo, the great- 
est artist of all ages. Angelo studied Dante, 
and largely received his inspiration from the 
writings of the great poet. Dante, in his oppo- 
sition to Papal infallibility and the sale of 
indulgences, was, in many respects, a forerunner 
of the Reformation. 

The great qualities of Dante's genius might 
be enumerated as follows: Brevity, sincerity, 
force, intensity, depth, definiteness. He pos- 
sessed all these qualities to a high degree, and 
could not otherwise than be one of the very 
greatest writers in the world, 



CULTURA. 581 

Sublimity was one of the principal qualities 
of Dante's genius. His pictures have not the 
breadth and vastness of Milton's; but they 
are more concrete and detailed. In fact, Dante 
was concrete, while Milton was abstract. 
Dante's sublimity is also more moral than 
pictorial. In his tragic and thrilling description 
of human passion and emotion, the great Italian 
poet may be compared to Shakespeare. 

In comparing Dante's verse with Homer and 
Milton, we might say that Dante's rhythm is 
like a marching army, Homer's like sailing 
over the ocean waves, and Milton's like a great 
pipe-organ. 

Dante's great work has been called the 
poetry of chivalrous love. While it may have 
been suggested by Platonic love, it was much 
higher and purer than this. It originated much 
the same way as the doctrine of Mariolatry. 
While it certainly tended to the elevation of 
woman, and consequently also to the elevation 
of man, it was carried to a great extreme. One 
great difficulty with it was the fact that the 
man was inspired by, and worshiped, some 
other woman instead of his wife. 

The following are some of Dante's sayings 



582 CULTURA. 

that we wish to bring before our readers. In 

Canto 29, lines 138 and 139: 

"And thou, if I thy features scan aright, 
Wilt know that Nature's practiced ape am I." 

The poet refers to an alchemist and a 
forger. In Canto 33, lines 48 and 49, when 
Count Ugolino saw his boys starved to death 
in prison by a tyrant, he used these significant 
words : 

"I gazed upon my boys — ^nor spoke a word. 
I wept not, for my heart was turned to stone." 

In Purgatorio, Canto 1, lines 19 and 20, 
we have these beautiful words : 

"The beauteous Star, to love and lovers dear, 
Was making all the Orient laugh — so bright." 

These words in Canto 3, lines 122 and 123, 
are interesting: 

"But such wide arms hath Mercy infinite, 
She welcomes every soul that turns to her." 

Dante thus describes the dawn: "The dawn 
was conquering the morning air, which fled 
before, so that from afar I recognized the 
trembling of the sea." He also describes the 
evening: "We walked through the evening air, 
gazing intent onward as far as our eyes could 
reach, facing the last and lucent rays of day" 



CULTURA. 583 

In Paradiso, Canto 1, lines 103, 104 and 

105, we read : 

"A law of order reigns, 
Throughout creation; and this law it is 
Which like to God the universe maintains." 

In Canto 24, lines 95, 96 and 97, Dante 
teaches that the internal evidences of Christian- 
ity surpass all others: 

"And hath convinced me with a strength so full, 
That in comparison with it, I hold 
Each other demonstration weak and dull." 

All poets and philosophers have been more 
impressed with the internal than with the ex- 
ternal evidences of Christianity. 



CHAPTER III. 
Savonarola and the Renaissance. 

The fifteenth century was one of the great- 
est in the progress of civiHzation. Near its 
middle the printing-press was invented; near 
its close America was discovered. In 1453, 
Constantinople was taken by the Turks, and 
Greek scholars were driven into western 
Europe. This led to the revival of learning, 
which greatly stimulated a progressive civiliza- 
tion. I find that many writers confound the 
Revival of Learning with the Renaissance. This 
is a mistake; while they were intimately related, 
and the Revival of Learning became a part of 
the Renaissance, the Renaissance had, in fact, 
long existed. Its beginning was near the age 
of Dante. 

The fif tenth century was also an age of 
corruption and an age of persecution. While 
ancient learning was a great benefit to European 
civilization, at the same time it introduced the 
worldliness and sensualism of the Greeks and 
Romans. Even the religious orders and high 

584 



CULTURA. 585 

officials in the church had become thoroughly 
corrupt. Papal Rome had also become as 
tyrannical as ever was pagan Rome. In the 
early part of the fifteenth century, Joan of Arc 
was burned; and in the last part of the same 
century, Savonarola was led to the stake. The 
girl, who represented the highest type of 
womanhood, and the man, who represented the 
highest type of manhood, were cruelly put to 
death by those who claimed to be Christians, 
and who ocupied the highest positions in the 
church. Joan of Arc and Savonarola obeyed 
God rather than man. They were the bright 
lights of their day. 

In the fifteenth century, Italy was the most 
enlightened country in the world, and Florence 
was the most enlightened city in Italy. Lorenzo 
de Medici ruled that city, and he was the 
greatest patron of science and art of any ruler 
in Europe. The result was that the great schol- 
ars and artists made their homes in Florence. 
It was a great age; it was the age of Leonardo 
da Vinci, whom the critics have called the 
greatest man of the century; of Michael Angelo, 
probably the greatest artist of all ages; in 
fact, of great men in every department of cul- 



586 CULTURA. 

ture. It was also the age of the most corrupt 
popes who ever sat upon the Papal throne. 

FIRST PERIOD IN THE LIFE OF SAVONAROLA. 

Savonarola was born at Ferrara in 1452. It 
was then a splendid city of about one hundred 
thousand inhabitants. The grandfather of 
Savonarola was a physician, and had become 
wealthy. His father was also a physician, but 
he was a courtier and a spendthrift, and the 
fortune was scattered. The grandfather was 
the boy's early teacher, and the pupil made 
rapid progress. He took much interest in the 
writings of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, and 
had become quite a thinker himself. His pur- 
pose was to become a physician, and try to 
regain the lost fortune of the family; but dis- 
appointment in love seems to have changed the 
purpose of his life. He fell desperately in 
love with the haughty daughter of a Florentine 
exile; and his rejection made him morose, and 
caused him to take a very gloomy view of life. 
At the age of twenty-two, he stole away from 
home, and entered the Dominican monastery at 
Bologna. He was an inmate of this monastery 
eight years. In 1482 he was sent on a mission 



CULTURA. 587 

to Ferrara, but did not attract much attention. 
He was soon recalled on account of war 
between Ferrara and Venice. 

SECOND PERIOD IN THE LIFE OF SAVONAROLA. 

In 1482, at the age of thirty, Savonarola 
came, on foot, to Florence. He was delighted 
when he first looked upon the magnificent city. 
In it Dante was born; and finally banished, 
because the city was not worthy of him. It 
was, at the time Savonarola reached it, one of 
the most beautiful cities in the world. Cosmo 
de Medici has been called its Washington, or 
Prince of Orange, and he was doubtless a great 
patriot. His family, however, had become very 
aristocratic, and it was the leader of the aris- 
tocracy of the city. This party triumphed 
over the liberties of Florence. Lorenzo de 
Medici caused the people to forget the loss 
of liberty by his magnificant patronage of art 
and science. He was a great scholar himself, 
and called to his court the most learned 
men of Europe. He was like the millionaires 
of the present age, who earn fortunes by unjust 
monopolistic schemes, and then seek to atone 
by large gifts. 



588 CULTURA. 

Savonarola did not succeed at first in his 
preaching, and became very much discouraged. 
He said that he could not move even a chicken ; 
that he had no voice, and no ability as a public 
speaker. He continued to study the Bible, and 
to meditate on its teaching. He felt that he 
had a message to the wicked city; and when a 
man fully knows that he has a message he 
becomes eloquent. He so aroused the people 
that he had to preach in the great cathedral, 
which was the center of one hundred and sev- 
enty churches. Savonarola became the center 
of attraction in the great city. 

THIRD PERIOD IN THE LIFE OF SAVONAROLA. 

The great preacher now becomes a politician ; 
and it may be that the circumstances were such 
that he could not do otherwise. He was con- 
scientious, and under the circumstances did 
well ; but he made mistakes, and in some things 
went to a great extreme. On the question of 
marriage, he was an extremist and caused 
husbands and wives to separate and enter con- 
vents. He was too puritanical, and one extreme 
is apt to lead to another. The great preacher, 
for a time, ruled Florence as Cromwell after- 



CULTURA. 589 

wards ruled England. Lorenzo de Medici was 
stricken with a fever, which brought him to his 
death-bed. He was in great agony on account 
of his many sins, and sought forgiveness. He 
sent for Savonarola. The preacher required 
three things of him before absolution: (1) A 
thorough repentance for his sins ; (2) a restora- 
tion of his ill-gotten gains; (3) a restoration of 
the liberties of Florence. Lorenzo consented to 
the first two, but not to the third. He died 
without absolution. 

FOURTH PERIOD IK THE LIFE OF SAVONAROLA. 

Piero de Medici, the son and successor of 
Lorenzo, had inherited his father's evil ten- 
dencies, but not his strong character. The 
people became dissatisfied with his rule, and 
were anxious to restore the Republic. The 
opportunity came. In harmony with the pre- 
diction of Savonarola, Charles VIH. of France 
had crossed the Alps, and had conquered every- 
thing before him. He was soon at the gates 
of Florence. Piero had been banished, and, 
through the influence of the great preacher, 
the King of France had come to terms with 
Florence. 



590 CULTURA. 

Savonarola restored the liberties of Flor- 
ence and re-established the Republic. Special 
favors were shown the poor, and interest was 
reduced from more than thirty per cent, to only 
six per cent. Some of the reforms of Savon- 
arola continue to the present time. 

FIFTH PERIOD IN THE LIFE OF SAVONAROLA. 

The time for the martyrdom of Savonarola 
is rapidly approaching. He had predicted the 
death of the Pope, of Lorenzo de Medici, of 
the King of Naples, and of the invasion of 
Italy by Charles VIII. of France. All these 
things had been fulfilled. According to his pre- 
diction, his own death was to take place in 
1498. Things soon began to shape themselves 
towards its accomplishment. 

Alexander VI. was the successor of Inno- 
cent VIII. to the Papal power. He was prob- 
ably the worst pope that Rome had ever had, 
and was determined that no one should oppose 
his purpose. He determined to destroy the 
great preacher. He had offered Savonarola a 
cardinal's hood, which was refused with the 
statement that he would only wear a martyr's 
crown, and the Pope was determined that he 



CULTURA. 591 

should wear it. He and two of his most de- 
voted disciples were tortured day by day by 
those who claimed to be Christians, in a more 
cruel manner than tortures inflicted by the 
worst savages. Savonarola died, but not the 
truth that he preached. He was a morning 
star of the Reformation. 

Savonarola was a great preacher. He was 
not so much a theologian as a social reformer. 
His sermons were directed to the conscience of 
the people, and their influence upon Europe was 
great. Like John the Baptist rebuking Herod, 
the great Prior bade even the Pope himself to 
repent of his sins. His influence in Florence 
was such that men returned their ill-gotten gain, 
and bad pictures and bad literature were burnt. 
Savonarola encouraged true spiritual art, and 
claimed that it was of God; but he severely 
condemned the sensualistic tendencies of the 
Renaissance. It was only rude, bad pictures 
that he had burned. 

Savonarola was a statesman. He was thor- 
oughly patriotic, and sought the good of all 
classes. The constitution of Florence shows his 
statesmanship, and the reduction of interest 
shows how zealously he sought the welfare of 



592 CULTURA. 

the people. He was a great advocate of 
liberty. 

Savonarola was a reformer. He did not 
seek to change the doctrine of the Catholic 
Church, but its morals ; he did not want to 
destroy the Papacy, but to depose Alexander VI. 
The three Popes of his age — Sextus IV., Inno- 
cent VIII. and Alexander VI. — were the worst 
men who ever occupied the Papal chair. Savon- 
arola was the greatest reformer, who sought 
reformation from within. He prepared the 
way for the great counter-Reformation, which 
has done so much for the enlightenment of 
the Catholic world. In a tenth of a century 
after his death,, the picture of Savonarola was 
painted by Raphael for the hall of the Vatican. 
The influence of this great man upon culture 
and civilization was indeed great. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Michael Angelo and Modern Art. 

Michael Angelo is the prophet or seer of 
the Renaissance. It would be impossible to 
imagine a stronger contrast than that which 
distinguishes his art from Correggio's, or lives 
more difficult in all their detail than those which 
he and Raphael or Lionardo lived, respectively. 
During the eighty-nine years of his earthly pil- 
grimage, he saw Italy enslaved and Florence 
extinguished ; it was his exceeding bitter fate to 
watch the rapid decay of the arts and to wit- 
ness the triumph of sacerdotal despotism over 
liberal thought. To none of these things was 
he indifferent; and the sorrow they wrought in 
his soul found expression in his painting. 
Michael Angelo was not framed by nature to 
fascinate like Lionardo, or to charm like 
Raphael. His manners were severe and simple. 
When he spoke, his words were brief and pun- 
gent. When he wrote, whether in poetry or 
prose, he used the fewest phrases to express 
the most condensed meaning. When asked why 

593 



594 CULTURA. 

he had not married, he replied that the wife 
he had — his art — cost him already too much 
trouble. He entertained few friends, and 
shunned society. Brooding over the sermons 
of Savonarola, the text of the Bible, the dis- 
courses of Plato, and the poems of Dante, he 
made his spirit strong in solitude by the com- 
panionship with everlasting thoughts. There- 
fore, when he was called to paint the "Sistine 
Chapel," he uttered through painting the 
weightiest prophecy the world has ever seen 
expressed in plastic form. His theme is noth- 
ing less than the burden of the prophets and 
the sibyls who preached the coming of a light 
upon the world and the condemnation of the 
world which had rejected it by an inexorable 
judge. Michelet says, not without truth, that 
the spirit of Savonarola lives again in these 
frescoes. The procession of the four and 
twenty elders, arraigned before the people of 
Brescia to accuse Italy of sin — ^the voice that 
cried to Florence, "Behold the sword of the 
Lord, and that swiftly! Behold I, even I, do 
bring a deluge upon the earth," are both seen 
and heard here very plainly. But there is 
more than Savonarola in this prophecy of 



CULTURA. 595 

Michael Angelo's. It contains the stem spirit 
of Dante, aflame with patriotism, passionate 
for justice. It embodies the philosophy of 
Plato. The creative God, who divides light 
from darkness, who draws Adam from the 
clay and calls forth new-born Eve in awful 
beauty, is the Demiurgus of the Greek. Again 
it carries the indignation of Isaiah, the wild 
denunciation of Ezekiel, the monotonous refrain 
of Jeremiah — "Ah, Lord, Lord." The classic 
sibyls intone their mystic hymns; the Delphic 
on his tripod of inspiration, the Erythraean 
bending over his scrolls, the withered witch of 
Cumse, the parched prophetess of Libya — all 
seem to cry "Repent, repent! for the kingdom 
of the spirit is at hand! Repent and awake, 
for the judgment of the world approaches." 
And above these voices we hear a most tre- 
mendous wail: "The nations have come to the 
birth; but there is not strength to bring forth!" 
That is the utterance of the Renaissance, as it 
had appeared in Italy. She who was first 
among the nations was now last; bound and 
bleeding, she lay prostrate at the temple gate 
she had unlocked. To Michael Angelo was 
given for his portion — ^not the alluring mys- 



596 CULTURA. 

teries of the new age, not the joy of the re- 
nascent world, not the petulant and pulsing rap- 
ture of youth: these had been divided between 
Lionardo, Raphael and Correggio — ^but the 
bitter burden of the sense that the awakening 
to life is in itself a pain, that the revelation of 
the liberated soul is itself judgment, that a 
light is shining, and that the world will not 
comprehend it. Pregnant as are the paintings 
of Michael Angelo with religious import, they 
are no longer Catholic in the sense in which 
the frescoes of the Lorengetti and Orcagua and 
Giotto are Catholic. He went beyond the 
ecclesiastical standing-ground and reached one 
where philosophy includes the Christian faith. 
Thus the true spirit of the Renaissance was 
embodied in his work of art. (See Symond's 
"Renaissance in Italy.") 

Michael Angelo was the most prominent 
figure in the revival of art. He impressed his 
strong personality on art; the service of beauty 
was with him religion. His thoughts were deep 
and philosophic; the judgment as taught in the 
Middle Ages was constantly before his mind. 
With him art was the vehicle of the highest 
thought; and the art of Greece and Rome be- 



CULTURA. 597 

came his servant and not his master. The artist 
CelHni was exactly the opposite to him in all 
this. Cellini represented the sensualistic ten- 
dencies of pagan art. 

While Michael Angelo reproduced the 
glories of ancient art, he confined himself to 
that which is imperishable and a permanent 
part of civilization. His influence on civiliza- 
tion has necessarily been very great; for true 
art is necessary to the culture and refinement 
of society. It lifts man into a higher atmos- 
phere of progress. It is most ennobling when 
inspired by religion, patriotism and love. An- 
gelo was greatly influenced by the poet Dante, 
and held largely to the views of the great poet 
on both politics and religion. 

Angelo was the highest representative of 
art in the history of the race; and it may be 
properly said that he belonged to the age of 
art. In the history of cizilization, each age 
has had its special mission; and in its particular 
department it has never been equaled, much 
less surpassed. The Hebrews, the Greeks and 
the Romans did for civilization some things 
that no other nation will ever be able to ac- 
complish. The same thing can be said of the 



598 CULTURA. 

Middle Ages and the Age of the Reformation. 
The Age of the Renaissance accompUshed iot 
art that which no other age can equal; and it 
has thus made a very great contribution to 
civilization. 

Michael Angelo was bom in 1475 at Ca- 
prese, a mountainous country, where his father, 
Lodocico, held the office of Podesta. He had 
an honorable ancestry, but not illustrious. It 
is true that the Buonarotti claimed descent 
from the princely house of Canossa, but this 
claim has failed to be established. His mother 
had for a nurse a stone-cutter's wife, and he 
afterwards claimed that he drew in his love of 
sculpture from his nurse's milk. It should also 
be remembered that Italy was glorious in art 
when Michael Angelo was born, and no man 
can escape the influence of his environment. 
Anyway, the boy determined to be an artist. 
His father opposed his desire to be an artist, 
for, in the eyes of the mediaeval aristocracy, it 
was considered a degradation; but his deter- 
mination finally caused his father to yield, and 
he was apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandajo. 
His progress was such that his master finally 
became envious of him, and there was a quarrel 



CULTURA. 599 

similar to the one that afterwards occurred be- 
tween the musicians Beethoven and Haydn. 
It is useless to try to confine an eagle in a 
hawk's nest, for soar he will, and woe to the 
one who interferes. GaHleo's experiments 
greatly troubled his father, who could not un- 
derstand the divine gifts of his son ; and George 
III. was totally incapacitated to understand the 
genius of Gibbon. "Scribble, scribble, scribble; 
Mr. Gibbon, I perceive, sir, you are always 
a-scribbling." 

Michael Angelo, at the age of sixteen, was 
introduced by his friend Granacci to Lorenzo 
de Medici, and the two friends frequently vis- 
ited the art gardens of this distinguished patron 
of art. This was really the beginning of the 
education of Michael Angelo; for the lord of 
Florence was so well pleased with the head of 
a Faun, chiseled out by the young sculptor, 
that he invited Michael to make his home in 
the palace. Here he met the most distinguished 
artists and literary men in the world; and, also, 
heard the matchless sermons of the great re- 
former, Savonarola. The earnestness of the 
great preacher made a lasting impression upon 
the young man. While in this palace, Michael 



600 CULTURA. 

carved his first bas-relief — "The Battle of Her- 
cules with the Centaurs." At this time Lorenzo 
died, and his successor, unable to maintain his 
position, was expelled from the city. On ac- 
count of this revolution, the young artist 
thought it best to leave Florence for a time. 
This he did, and went to Bologna. As soon, 
however, as he found it safe he returned to 
his native city, and produced the popular statue 
of the "Sleeping Cupid." 

In 1496 we find Michael Angelo in Rome. 
It was in the Eternal City that the great artist 
was destined to produce his noblest works of 
art. While the Borgias, who occupied the 
Papal chair, were making the Vatican palace 
a den of thieves and harlots, Angelo produced 
the purest of his statues — "A Pieta" — in mar- 
ble, which represents the Christ as lying dead 
upon his mother's knees. This masterpiece 
makes even death beautiful and grief sublime. 

The great artist now enters the sixteenth 
century, and returns to Florence. He re- 
mained four years in his native city; and it was 
a period so fruitful that his reputation was 
fully established. To it belong the great 
"Statue of David," the "Holy Family of the 



CULTURA. 601 

Tribune," painted for Angelo Doni, and the 
"Cartoon of the Battle of Pisa." After this, 
not even the name of the great Lionardo stood 
higher than that of Michael Angelo. 

The artist, at this time, worked under great 
embarrassment. He largely owed his success ^ 
to the patronage of the Medici family; yet he 
was a patriot, and bitterly opposed to the 
usurpations of this family. In fact, he had 
even fought in the army of the patriots against 
the tyrants. He was placed in the awkward 
predicament of being politically opposed to his 
best friend in art. As a patriot, he was a 
disciple of Savonarola. 

In 1505, Angelo was called to Rome by 
Pope Julius II. and put to work on the pon- 
tiff's mausoleum. This unfinished monument 
of Julius was, perhaps, one of the very great- 
est works of the celebrated artist. The "Statue 
of Moses," which forms a part of it, has had 
a world-wide influence. Angelo was destined 
to leave much of his work unfinished. At one 
time he remarked that it would have been better 
for him to have spent his time in making sul- 
phur matches than in spending it in the uncer- 
tain trade pf an artist Italy, in the sixteenth 



602 CULTURA. 

century, was torn to pieces by factions, and the 
Popes were extremely vacillating in their pur- 
poses. If this great artist had had for a master 
a Pericles, who supported Phidias, he could 
have accomplished for civilization even more 
than he did. The artist was at one time so 
disappointed that he even ran away from Rome, 
intending to enter the service of a Sultan. It 
was with great difficulty that the Pope succeeded 
in persuading him to return. 

In 1508, Pope Julius put Michael Angelo to 
work on the Sistine Chapel. The artist stout- 
ly protested, claiming that he was not a painter. 
Julius, however, had made up his mind that 
Angelo should paint the Sistine, and his stub- 
bornness made Michael Angelo also one of the 
greatest painters in the world. While sculpture 
belonged to the ancient world, painting was 
largely a modern art. It was developed to its 
meridian glory in Italy in the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries. Angelo acquired immortal 
fame by his work on the Sistine Chapel. His 
work shows the sublimity of Dante, with the 
religious fervor of Savonarola. No one except 
Michael Angelo could have accomplished so 
much. 



CULTURA. 603 

The "Last Judgment" has long been con- 
sidered the greatest of all of Angelo's paint- 
ings. It was executed at the very height of the 
artist's fame, when the eyes of all Italy were 
upon him. Besides, its size and theme strike 
terror to those who look upon it. In it can be 
seen the austerity and gloom of the painter. 
While Raphael was superior to him in grace 
and beauty, and Titian in coloring, he de- 
lighted, like Dante, in the awful and terrible. 
He surpassed all other artists in the sublime. 

While Michael Angelo was the greatest sculp- 
tor in the world, and probably also the greatest 
painter, he was even greater as an architect. 
Lord, in his "Beacon Lights of History," says: 
"Yet it was neither as a sculptor nor painter 
that Michael Angelo left the most enduring 
influence, but as an architect." Painting and 
sculpture are the exclusive ornaments and 
possessions of the rich and favored. But archi- 
tecture concerns all men, and most men have 
something to do with it in the course of their 
lives. What boots it that a man pays two 
thousand pounds for a picture to be shut up 
in a library, and probably more valued for its 
rarity or from the caprices of fashion, than for 



604 CULTURA. 

its real merits? But it is something when a 
nation pays a million for a ridiculous building, 
without regard to the object for which it was 
intended — to be observed and criticized by 
everybody and for succeeding generations. A 
good picture is the admiration of a few ; a mag- 
nificent edifice is the pride of thousands. A 
picture necessarily cultivates the taste of a 
family circle; a public edifice, the minds of 
millions. Even the 'Moses* of Michael Angelo 
is a mere object of interest to those who visit 
the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli; but St. 
Peter's is a monument to be seen by large pop- 
ulations from generation to generation. All 
London contemplates St. Paul's Church or the 
Palace of Westminster, but the National Gallery 
may be visited by a small fraction of the people 
once a year. Of the thousands who stand be- 
fore the Tuileries or the Madeleine, not one in 
a hundred has visited the gallery of the 
Louvre." It is, therefore, evident that it is as 
an architect that Michael Angelo has had the 
greatest influence on civilization. St. Peter's 
was not only the last great achievement of 
Michael Angelo, but it was also the last great 
achievement of the Popes. Like the Temple of 



CULTURA. 605 

Ephesus, it will long remain one of the wonders 
of the world. It impresses one rather as a 
work of nature than the work of man; and it 
is certainly the noblest work of the Renaissance. 
It is, to-day, probably the greatest building in 
the world. It has a lasting impression upon 
its visitor. 

Michael Angelo was an intensely religious 
man; and, unlike Raphael and Titian, he lived 
up to the highest Christian laws of social purity. 
He was never married; but, like most old bach- 
elors, he fell in love with a charming widow. He 
was sixty years old and Victoria Colonna was 
forty- four when they first met. They were 
both disciples of Savonarola, and were anxious 
to restore the church to its ancient purity. The 
great artist loved this noble woman with his 
whole heart; and it is said that he sat by her 
side when she was dying, and kissed her hand. 
His soul truly followed her to heaven. His 
thoughts were constantly on her, and he wrote 
beautiful poems to her memory. He was truly 
a disciple of Dante, and represented his own 
age much as Dante had represented his. 

Angelo is certainly the best representative 
of modern art. His genius was greater than 



606 CULTURA. 

that of Raphael or Titian. In some things 
Raphael surpassed him, and in others Titian 
surpassed both him and Raphael; but, all things 
considered, Michael Angelo was certainly the 
greatest of modern artists. He, Raphael and 
Titian lifted art to the highest plane of per- 
fection it has ever reached, and they have been 
the lights of all succeeding generations. The 
great artists of northern Europe and Great 
Britain studied in Italy, and received there 
their highest ideals. Even to this day the 
highest ambition of American students of art 
is to study in Italy. 



CHAPTER V. 

Shakespeare and the Bible. 

Shakespeare was one of the very greatest 
literary men who have ever lived. He was born 
at Stratford-on-the-Avon in 1564, the year of 
the death of John Calvin. Robert Ingersoll 
says that the world made a wise exchange; 
but, as a matter of fact, John Calvin was in 
some respects a greater man than Shakespeare, 
and his influence for good has probably been 
as great as that of the immortal Englishman. 
The father and mother of William Shakespeare 
were common people, and if they had any 
education at all it was certainly greatly limited. 
In the history of literature, it appears that the 
greatest thinkers have usually sprung from the 
common people. We know much more of 
Shakespeare's father than of his mother, and 
this is to be regretted, for he was much more 
like his mother. Her name, Mary Arden, is 
beautiful, and she was evidently a very superior 
woman. It is favorable to the civilization of 
the present age that more attention is being 

20 607 



608 CULTURA. 

given to the life and influence of woman. In 
that respect the Bible is a very interesting 
book, for it constantly dwells upon the life and 
influence of woman. William Shakespeare was 
educated in the grammar school of his native 
village. His literary works show plainly that 
he acquired a good education. His plays show 
that he was well acquainted with the Latin and 
French languages. In "Henry V." some of 
the dialogues are carried on in French. In 
"Love's Labor Lost" and in "Merry Wives of 
Windsor," Shakespeare makes his teachers, 
Ho lo femes and Sir Hugh Evans, use Latin 
phrases directly from Lily's Grammar. The 
influence of Ovid, especially the "Metamor- 
phoses," appear in all Shakespeare's early literary 
work, and it is apparent even in "The Tem- 
pest," one of his latest. It is also evident that 
he drew the plot of the "Comedy of Errors" 
from Plautus. It is also probable that Shake- 
speare acquired some knowledge of the Italian 
language. Take it all in all, our great author 
was in his own way quite a scholar. 

The Bible was studied more than any other 
book when Shakespeare went to school. In his 
plays the great dramatist draws characters from 



CULTURA. 609 

all parts of the Bible, thus showing his knowl- 
edge of both the Old and the New Testaments. 
He had evidently studied the Bible with a good 
deal of care when a student in the grammar 
school. This made him a master of English. 
When only a little more than eighteen 
years old, William Shakespeare married a 
woman eight years older than himself. Boys 
of that age are very apt to fall in love with 
girls much older than themselves, and if they 
marry at that time their minds are apt to 
undergo a great change in a few years. It is 
quite evident that the great poet in after life 
saw that his course had not been wise. In 
Act II. of "Twelfth Night," we have the fol- 
lowing : 

"Let still the woman take 
An elder than herself ; so wears she to him, 
So sways she level in her husband's heart." 

In "Tempest," Act IV., Scene 1, we have 

these lines: 

"If thou dost break her virgin knot before 
All sanctimonious ceremonies may 
With full and holy rite be minister'd, 
No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall 

, To make this contract grow; but barren — 

Sour-eyed disdain, and discord, shall bestrew 
The union of your bed with weeds so loathly 
That you shall hate it both," 



610 CULTURA. 

Shakespeare evidently bore his domestic 
ties with considerable impatience; and his rap- 
idly growing family, taken in connection with 
his father^s financial misfortunes, caused him 
to go to London in order to make his own for- 
tune. He was a man of great business tact, as 
well as of literary genius, and consequently 
rose rapidly in London. He made a reputation 
as fast as he made money, and in a few years 
was not only at the head of his profession, but 
was also, from a money standpoint, quite 
independent. 

Shakespeare was the true representative of 
the Elizabethan Age. It has been claimed that 
he represented no age, but rather all ages. It 
is true that his spirit and work were cosmopoli- 
tan, but still he truly represented that which 
was best in his own age. His rival, Ben 
Jonson, called him the very soul of his age. 
There has been a discussion as to whether he 
was Catholic or Protestant; but any one at all 
acquainted with that age knows that he be? 
longed to the great Protestant movement. 
Edward Dowden truly says: "It has been asked 
whether Shakespeare was a Protestant or a 
Catholic, and he has been proved to belong to 



CULTURA. 611 

each communion to the satisfaction of contend- 
ing theological zealots. Shakespeare's poetry, 
resting upon a purely artistic basis, is not a 
rendering into art of the dogmas of either 
Catholicism or Protestantism. Shakespeare 
himself, a great artistic nature, framed from 
manifold joy and pain, may, like other artists, 
have had no faculty for the attainment of cer- 
titude upon extra-mundane and superhuman 
matters; of concrete moral facts, he had the 
clearest perception, but we do not find that he 
was interested, at least as an artist, in truths 
or alleged truths which transcend the limits 
of human experience. That the world suggests 
inquiries which can not be answered; that mys- 
teries confront and baffle us; that around our 
knowledge lies ignorance, around our light 
darkness — ^this to Shakespeare seemed a fact 
containing within it a profound significance, 
which might almost be named religious. But, 
studiously as Shakespeare abstains from em- 
bodying the theological dogma in his art, and 
tolerant as his spirit is, it is certain that the 
spirit of Protestantism— of Protestantism con- 
sidered as a portion of a great movement of 
humanity — animates and breathes through his 



612 CULTURA. 

writings. Unless he had stood in antagonism 
to his time, it could not be otherwise. Shake- 
speare's creed is not a series of abstract state- 
ments of truth, but a body of concrete im- 
pulses, tendencies and habits. The spirit of 
his faith is not to be ascertained by bringing 
together little sentences from the utterances of 
one of this dramatis personcB and of that. By 
such a method he might be proved (as Birch 
tries to prove Shakespeare) an atheist. The 
faith by which Shakespeare lived is rather to 
be discovered by noting the total issue and re- 
sultant of his art towards the fostering and 
sustenance of a certain type of humane char- 
acter. It may be asserted without hesitation 
that the Protestant type of character, and the 
Protestant polity in state and nation, is that 
which has received impulse and vigor from the 
mind of the greatest of English poets." 

The question has been asked, "Was Shake- 
speare a religious poet?" I do not hesitate to 
answer in the affirmative. While the great poet 
did not advocate the dogmas of either the 
Catholics or the Protestants, he was a believer 
in the principles of Christianity as taught in 
the Bible. He believed in God and in Christ; 



CULTURA. 613 

in Divine Providence and in a future state. He 
loved nature and believed that God is in nature ; 
he loved humanity and believed that God is in 
history. His faith was that in God we live 
and move and have our being. He believed that 
this world is a part of the great universe of 
God, and that man should live for time as well 
as eternity. He in no sense sympathized with 
the Puritan type of character, for his religion 
was the religion of an artist, and the Puritans 
were opposed to art. Shakespeare was too 
much a man of this world to be a Puritan. 

There are two theories in reference to the 
character of Shakespeare; the one makes him 
a prosperous and moral man of this world, and 
the other, advocated by M. Taine, makes him 
very passionate and immoral. The truth is be- 
tween the two extremes. Shakespeare was a 
prosperous man of this world, and not specially 
immoral, according to the standard of the Eliz- 
abethan Age. He was, however, far from the 
Puritan standard of morals. It is doubtless 
true that he loved wine and women too well; 
but not more so than did the leading men of 
his age. It would hardly be correct to call him 
a drunkard, as some have done; but he doubt- 



614 CULTURA. 

less drank too much wine for his stomach's 
sake. It probably had something to do in 
causing his death in the very prime of life. It 
is claimed by some authors that drinking 
brought on a fever, which caused his death. 

It is interesting to study the growth of 
Shakespeare's mind. His writings belong to 
the last decade of the sixteenth century and 
the first decade of the seventeenth. The fol- 
lowing plays probably belong to the sixteenth 
century: "Venus and Adonis," "Titus Andro- 
nicus," "Lucrece," "Romeo and Juliet," "Rich- 
ard II.," "Richard III," "Henry IV.," "Love's 
Labor Lost," "Passionate Pilgrim." The fol- 
lowing plays probably belong to the seventeenth 
century: "Henry IV.," "Midsummer Night's 
Dream," "Merchant of Venice," "Much Ado 
about Nothing," "Henry V.," "Merry Wives of 
Windsor," "Hamlet," "Lear," "Troilus and Cres- 
sida," "Pericles," "Othello." 

Romeo and Hamlet well represent strong 
tendencies in Shakespeare's nature. They were 
overcome in favor of sanity by the strong 
common sense of the great Englishman. M. 
Taine's mistakes in the criticism of Shakespeare 
are from the fact that he does not fully com- 



CULTURA. 615 

prehend the English mind. He writes too 
much from the standpoint of a Frenchman. No 
difference what character Shakespeare might 
represent, he would always return to sanity 
and morality. He studied sin and did not let 
the dark side of life escape him. He saw 
Cordelia strangled in the arms of her father, 
and witnessed the evil conduct of Edmund and 
the two sisters of Cordelia; but at the same 
time he was loyal to the good. Kent showed 
invincible loyalty, and Edgar was constantly 
employed in the service of the right. Sin found 
the sinners out and they suffered a just retri- 
bution. Truth and right finally triumphed. 

Shakespeare has been called a "jack-of-all- 
trades," but this epithet is hardly correct. It 
is certain, however, that he drew his material 
from all possible sources. He was one of the 
greatest students in the world. With the ex- 
ception of probably one, all his plots were 
drawn from others; and he had that peculiar 
genius which enabled him to make his own 
all the greatest productions of the past. It has 
been said that Shakespeare was the most orig- 
inal man in the world, and in some respects 
this Is true. 



616 CULTURA. 

HUMAN LIFE IN SHAKESPEARE AND THE BIBLE. 

1. In Shakespeare and the Bible human life 
is presented impartially. Shakespeare is per- 
fectly fair with all nations and times. He 
presents a correct picture of human life, no 
difference where and when you find it. It 
makes no difference to what creed, race or 
party the character belongs, the mirror is held 
up to nature, and you recognize it as a genuine 
description. 

Some have thought that Shylock is a mis- 
representation of the Jewish race, but I think 
they are mistaken in this. The great dramatist 
does not intend Shylock to represent all Jews, 
but only a certain class. It is certainly unfor- 
tunate that so many of them belong to this 
class. Shakespeare is no more severe on the 
Jews in his character of Shylock, than Christ in 
his graphic description of Dives. Dives and Shy- 
lock represent a tendency in that race that 
continues to the present time. Nathan Myers 
Rothschild, the great Jewish banker of London, 
has been described by impartial writers as a 
perfect Dives and Shylock. 

2. In Shakespeare and the Bible we study 



CULTURA. 617 

human life sympathetically. All men are 
brothers, and subject to infirmities. The queen 
who is a mother must sympathize with all other 
mothers in their sufferings and losses. When 
we see the criminal suffer for his crimes, we 
try to console him in his last moments. Shake- 
speare so well understood human nature that 
he could sympathize with man in all positions 
in life. Like the great central figure of the 
Bible, he knew what was in man, and could, 
consequently, sympathize the better with him. 

Shakespeare shows man to the utmost ex- 
tent of his capacities and forces. He carries us 
out of ourselves into others. He does not do 
this by the force of logic, but through the 
agency of character. He presents the bold, 
wicked man from the conception of crime to 
its execution, and we can not otherwise than 
feel that there was something good in the man 
after all. When lust is conceived, it bringeth 
forth sin, and sin bringeth forth death. All 
must finally die, and we can not well otherwise 
than sympathize with the unfortunate, even if 
they have been bad. 

3. In Shakespeare and the Bible we study 
human life from the standpoint of individuality. 



618 CULTURA. 

Shakespeare makes each individual distinct from 
every other individual. He holds the mirror 
up to nature, for in nature you find no two 
individuals exactly alike. In his great men of 
history, the artist has no two alike. Julius 
Caesar and Mark Antony are very different 
men, and so were Brutus and Cassius. The 
same thing is true of Coriolanus. 

We have many individuals in Shakespeare 
distinguished for beauty and tenderness, as well 
as those noted for grandeur and power. We 
can mention Juliet, Rosalind, Portia and many 
others, but no two are alike. Shakespeare is 
fully as successful in portraying oddity and 
rudeness as beauty and tenderness. Take, for 
example, Juliet's nurse, Mrs. Quickly and Jack 
Falstaff. It appears to me that these individu- 
alities perfectly represent each in its own way, 
oddity and rudeness. 

4. In Shakespeare and the Bible human life 
is represented in its universality. Shakespeare 
is in harmony with the teaching of Christianity 
in his representation of the brotherhood of all 
races. In the plays of Shakespeare we have all 
the leading nations represented, and the great 
artist manifests a cosmopolitan spirit. He be- 



CULTURA. 619 

lieved in the Fatherhood of God and the 
universal brotherhood of man. 

5. In the study of human life in Shakespeare 
and the Bible there is a philosophical basis. It 
is philosophic in the fact that it is founded 
upon the actual nature of man. It is because 
Shakespeare so truly portrays the hidden 
powers of consciousness that he suggests a 
comprehensive Philosophy of Life. He seemsl 
to have traced the law of every faculty fromi 
instinct up to the highest thought. 

Shakespeare so well understood human 
nature that he well knew that Falstaff would 
make men laugh, that Lear would make them 
weep, that Hamlet would make them think, that 
the loveliness of Juliet would charm them, that 
the grief of the lovely Desdemona would sadden 
them, and that the murderous guilt of Lady 
Macbeth would shock them. The great poet- 
artist well knew how to play upon every chord 
of the human heart. 

THE WOMEN OF SHAKESPEARE. 

The marvelous comprehension of the nature 
of woman is one of the strongest evidences of 
Shakespeare's genius. He shows himself ac- 



620 CULTURA. 

quainted with woman's passions, with her 
guilt, with her sinful schemes and crimes, with 
her innocence, girlish joys and guileless love. 
Shakespeare knew what was in woman. 

1. Our great poet-philosopher well under- 
stood the idealistic woman. Probably his best 
examples are Perdita and Imogen. Even before 
these I must mention Miranda. She lived alone 
with her father on a desert island, surrounded 
by mystery, well calculated to develop her 
idealism. Finally, when the visionary world is 
developed into the actual, her idealism found 
its reality. Miranda well represents the ideal- 
ism of the young maiden, who loves to be alone 
and cherish her ideals, until she is prepared for 
the actual world. When the prince of her 
affections comes she is ready to meet him. In 
Imogen we have the ideal wife, who clothes 
her husband in the perfections of her own 
ideals ; and it is well she did, for he was totally 
unworthy of her ; but she was his redeemer, and 
finally made out of him a very respectable man. 
Other idealistic women have done the same. 

2. Shakespeare well represents the romantic 
woman. Olivia, Viola and Rosalind are good 
examples. Such women are so imaginative that 



CULTURA. 621 

they can not always love those whom they es- 
teem the highest; and it is not possible to tell 
whom a romantic woman will marry. Olivia 
could not Iov€ the Duke, for whom she had the 
highest esteem, but was perfectly happy with 
one greatly his inferior. Like other women of 
her class, she could give no reason for her 
infatuation. She thus speaks of the Duke : 

"Your lord does not know my mind. I can not love 

him; 
Yet I suppose him virtuous, know him noble ; 
Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth ; 
In voices well divulged, free, learned, yaliant; 
And in dimension and shape of nature 
A gracious person; but yet I can not love him." 

3. Shakespeare was greatly gifted in describ- 
ing the immoral woman. He seems to have 
understood so well the sensibilities of woman 
that he could see why vice was more fatal to 
her than to man. He graphically describes 
Cressida and her tendencies to evil. The fas- 
cinations of such a woman he especially pictures 
in Cleopatra. Think of the wonderful influ- 
ence of this immoral woman, who could conquer 
the great Caesar and his friend Mark Antony. 

4. Shakespeare could read the very thoughts 
of the criminal woman. This is well shown in 



622 CULTURA. 

"Macbeth." Lady Macbeth was so ambitious 
that she divested herself of womanly tender- 
ness, and was prepared for the blackest crime. 
It seems that her womanly nature somewhat 
reasserted itself when she lifted the dagger to 
strike Duncan while he was asleep, and could 
not do so, because he looked like her father. 
While a great criminal, she somewhat redeems 
herself on account of her wonderful devotion 
to her husband. While we can have some 
respect for Lady Macbeth in her misfortunes, 
we can have none whatever for Goneril and 
Regan, the wicked daughters of King Lear. 
Their conduct is the very consummation of 
wickedness. 

5. Shakespeare well knew how to represent 
the common woman. In "The Merry Wives of 
Windsor," Beatrice and Katherine are good 
examples. There are also others that might be 
mentioned. Dame Quickly is a woman you 
can not help liking. She fills her place in 
Shakespeare's comedy as she did in her armed 
chair. Juliet's nurse is also an interesting 
character for her class. Her self-consequence 
for a menial was certainly great. 

6. Our great artist does not fail to picture 



CULTURA. 623 

to us woman in sorrow. The great motherly- 
sorrow of Constance can not fail to touch every 
heart. She was like Rachel, weeping for her 
children and refusing to be comforted. The 
great sorrow of the devoted wife Desdemona 
touches the human heart. It is true that she 
did not love wisely, but she knew how to be 
true to the man whom she did love. We sym- 
pathize with Cordelia, the devoted daughter of 
King Lear, as we would with an angel in 
sorrow. She is one of the most lovely char- 
acters in Shakespeare. 

7. It is probable that no other writer has 
equaled Shakespeare in presenting to us woman 
in love. As with Paul, so with Shakespeare, 
the great theme was love. "The greatest of 
these is love." While Ophelia was not a strong 
character, she was beautiful in love. When we 
read "Romeo and Juliet," we feel that this 
world would truly be in darkness without 
woman. We feel as did Romeo, that this world 
would have no attractions without Juliet. 
Portia, in "The Merchant of Venice," is a great 
woman, and it is interesting to see a woman 
with so much dignity in love. She is the kind 
of woman that moves the world and advances 



624 CULTURA. 

civilization. I have never been able to see the 
beauty in the character of Jessica, the daughter 
of Shy lock, that some have seen. If her father 
had done wrong, others had done wrong also. 
Besides, he most needed his only child in his 
misfortunes. It appears also that she changed 
her religion in order to get a husband, and that 
was certainly not a very high motive. I view 
the matter as did honest Gobbo; she only 
increased the number of pork-eaters. 

THE MEN OF SHAKESPEARE. 

The Christ of the Bible knew what was in 
man, and the same thing can be largely said of 
our great dramatist. 

1. Man in the Shakespearean tragedies. 
Shakespeare makes man superior to woman as 
an abstract thinker, but he makes her more in- 
tuitive than man. Hamlet best represents the 
intellect of man as presented by our great trage- 
dian. He was not only a great thinker, but was 
also gifted with a marvelous imagination. While 
woman is naturally poetical, man has especially 
shown himself to be master of the sublime. The 
names of Job, Isaiah, yEschylus, Dante, Shake- 
speare, Milton and Goethe sufficiently illustrate 



CULTURA. 625 

this fact. lago and Richard III., although of 
a very different character from Hamlet, well 
illustrate man's intellectual acumen. Macbeth 
might also be mentioned as one of the intellec- 
tual men of Shakespeare. He was not, as 
Hamlet, philosophic, but he was imaginary, and 
subject to illusions. 

In his tragedies, Shakespeare well describes 
the elementary and inward nature of man. He 
knew exactly what men of certain temperaments 
would do under particular circumstances. No 
other book in the world except the Bible so mi- 
nutely and accurately describes human nature 
as does Shakespeare. 

We find the pathetic in the tragedies of 
Shakespeare as we find it in nature and in the 
Bible. How true indeed to nature is the 
pathos found in "King Lear," and in "Romeo 
and Juliet." Shakespeare does not deal with 
them so much from their high positions in life 
as from the standpoint of suffering humanity. 
Like nature, he makes character in suffering 
reveal itself, and he also deals with the in- 
fluences by which the person is controlled. Thus 
we have an intellectual pathos, and we have 
such characters created as Othello and King 



626 CULTURA. 

Lear. There is no cheap pathos in Shakespeare. 
2. Man in the comedies of Shakespeare. 
Woman has wit, but man alone has humor. 
What I mean is that humor in man reaches its 
highest point. No other writer, and especially 
English writer, has equaled Shakespeare in the 
presentation of humor. It is seldom that a 
woman ever becomes a fool, and it is seldom 
that a man does not become one. Shakespeare 
has given us a perfect description of the fool. 
How could the fool be better described than in 
Launce? He was even angry with his dog 
Crab, because the cur would not weep. Crab 
had his faults, it is true, but he was a dog and 
not a man. Launce is a character in the "Two 
Gentlemen of Verona" that is worthy of careful 
study from the standpoint of the comic. Mal- 
volio is the best example the great dramatist 
gives us of the sentimental fool. He made a 
fool of himself in loving Olivia, and he is not 
the only man who has made the same mistake. 
Launcelot Gobbo well represents the conceited 
fool. You can study this interesting character 
in "The Merchant of Venice." Bottoms the 
weaver is the most suitable type of the dramatic 
fool. He thought he could roar like a lion, but 



CULTURA. 627 

it was no more like a lion than an actor is like 
a natural man. Dogberry is the best example 
that Shakespeare gives us of what might be 
called the official fool. He had the self-confi- 
dence of the modern politician. Justice Shal- 
low is also an official fool. It may be that 
Shakespeare had something especially against 
him. He certainly does make him a great fool. 

It seems that the genius of Shakespeare was 
no less when he entered into folly than when 
he entered into greatness. 

Some of Shakespeare's characters were at 
home in satire. What other character could 
equal this satirical fool on poetry and love? I 
mean Touchstone. He could reach every ele- 
ment in human nature pointing in the direction 
of his folly. If you feel gloomy, study Touch- 
stone on poetry and love, and gloom, at least 
for the time being, will touch you no more. 

It appears to me that no other character in 
English literature so well combines all the 
elements of the comic as Falstaff. His asso- 
ciates, Pete, Pistol, Nym, Bardolph, Mrs. 
Quickly, the Page, and even the great Prince 
Hal, are all tributaries to his mighty power. 
He always delighted to compare himself with 



628 CULTURA. 

Caesar, "that hook-nosed fellow of Rome." It 
can truly be said of Shakespeare's comic power 
that it was both practical and ethical. He has 
important lessons to teach in all his comedies. 

SHAKESPEARE AND THE BIBLE ON A FUTURE 
STATE. 

Dante studied eternity rather than time; but 
Shakespeare studied time rather than eternity. 
Shakespeare belonged to the great Protestant 
age of progress. He believed that this world 
and the good things of this world were created 
by the Almighty for the good of man. He 
looked upon this world as divine; and to him 
the proper study of mankind was man. He be- 
lieved in a future state as a part of the great 
visible universe; and as necessary for the com- 
pletion of the powers of man. Shakespeare 
believed in a future state, because man's nature 
demands one. The conscience of man can not 
be fully explained on any other supposition than 
a future state of rewards and punishments. 

No other book teaches so plainly a future 
state of existence as the Bible. The Christ of 
history especially brought life and immortality 
to light. He speaks as familiarly of the future 



CULTURA. 629 

world as of the present, and to him the future 
world was the real world. Paul declared that 
the seen things are temporal, while the unseen 
things are eternal. 



CHAPTER VI. 
Goethe and the Highest German Culture. 

Introduction. — Plato speaks of an old quar- 
rel between poets and philosophers, and to this 
day complete harmony has never been found, 
and it is quite probable that it never will be, 
for the methods of poets and philosophers are 
entirely different, and it is indeed proper that 
they should be. While the poet, in the very 
nature of things, appeals to intuition and the 
philosopher to reason, there is a higher sphere 
in which intuition and reason harmonize, so, in 
the highest point of both, poetry and philosophy 
unite. They are both essential in reaching the 
highest realities of the universe. Both should 
do as Schiller recommends, widen nature with- 
out going beyond it. Homer's description of 
the Trojan War is not a mere copy of facts 
any more than the "Sorrows of Werther" are 
copies of Goethe's life in Welzlar, and the 
suicide of Jerusalem. The poets so use the 
facts as to reconstruct a new world. 

Goethe owed much to philosophy, especially 

630 



CULTURA. (531 

to Plato, Spinoza and Schelling. This is clearly- 
visible in all of his works, and it could not be 
otherwise with this great advocate of self-cul- 
ture. He was necessarily much influenced by 
the idealistic philosophy of his day, and sought 
the great spiritual reality from the poetic stand- 
point, while others sought it from the philo- 
sophic. Goethe wrote the philosopher Jacobi 
that philosophy could depend upon his sym- 
pathy when it confirmed his feeling as though 
he was one with nature. 

Goethe, at one time, was greatly influenced 
by Rousseau. The appeals of this philosopher 
to nature as a power within man, against every 
constraint from without, had a very great in- 
fluence upon Goethe, and this influence con- 
tinued until the publication of Werther. The 
sympathy of this great poet with Rousseau was 
largely caused by Goethe's intense opposition 
to the mechanical philosophy. 

Goethe turned from Rousseau to Spinoza. 
In fact, his whole life was largely influenced 
by the ethics of Spinoza, which was to him a 
kind of Bible, and whatever excursions he 
might make into other works, he was very apt 
to return to this as his book of authority. In 



632 CULTURA. 

Werther he taught even himself the un worthi- 
ness of that state of mind which would lead 
to suicide. Whatever wrong direction he might 
take, Spinoza's "Ethics" appeared ready to 
catch him when he fell. He was convinced 
that rebellion against the realities of human life 
were both futile and irrational; and no man 
was ever more firmly resolved to make the very 
best of circumstances than was Goethe. This 
made him an optimist, and his practical phi- 
losophy was to always attend to the nearest 
duty. 

Goethe was so much influenced by the phi- 
losophy of Schelling that he has been called a 
disciple of Schelling. Schelling's "Idealism" 
made strong appeals to his sympathies; for he 
was much opposed to an unnatural God and a 
godless nature. He was an evolutionist, and 
thought that God should move the world from 
within. He agreed with Paul that in God we 
live, and move, and have our being. 

During the years that Goethe was largely 
under the influence of the Greek school of art, 
he broke with Christianity, and called himself 
an old heathen. Near the close of life, how- 
ever, he greatly modified his views, and became 



CULTURA. 633 

more favorable to Christianity. His praise of 
the Christ as the founder of Christianity is one 
of the finest descriptions in literature. 

EARLY LIFE OF GOETHE. 

Luther has been called the morning and 
Goethe the meridian of German literature. At 
times Schiller reached even the heights of 
Goethe, and the blazing light of the greater poet 
did not appear to dim his. Goethe and Schiller 
are certainly the brightest lights of German 
literature. 

Goethe was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main 
in 1749, lacking but one year of the middle of 
the eighteenth century. His father was twice 
the age of his mother, and a man of both liter- 
ary and artistic ability. He had a strong will, 
and required his son to complete what he under- 
took. The happy and serene temperament of 
the mother was a great blessing to her prom- 
ising son. Goethe, in his autobiography, thus 
speaks of his parents: "From my father I de- 
rive my frame and the steady guidance of my 
life, and from my dear little mother, my happy 
disposition and my love of story-telling." 

The early environment of Goethe was favor- 



634 CULTURA. 

able to the cultivation of both art and literature. 
Frankfort was quite an important center of 
culture. When only sixteen years of age, he 
was prepared for the university. His first love 
appears to have been Gretchen, at the age of 
sixteen. He loved her very much as Dante 
loved Beatrice, and she treated him as a child. 
Shakespeare is not the only great writer who 
fell in love with a woman greatly his senior. 

GOETHE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LEIPSIC. 

At the age of sixteen, Goethe was matric- 
ulated in the University of Leipsic. It was the 
purpose of his father to make of him a great 
lawyer, but the son was much more fond of 
literature than of the law. While 'he completed 
the law course, he gave even more attention 
to literature and art. He seems, thus early, to 
have sought universal culture. While at Leip- 
sic he visited Dresden, to more fully satisfy his 
taste for art. He never did forsake the prin- 
ciples of classic art taught him at Leipsic by 
Lessing and others. On account of sickness, he 
was compelled to return to Frankfort, where he 
remained nearly two years. These were not 
spent in idleness. 



CULTURA. 635 

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF STRASBURG. 

In 1770, at the age of twenty-one, Goethe 
entered the University of Strasburg. Here he 
met Herder, whom he appears to have con- 
sidered his intellectual destiny. Herder intro- 
duced him to the "Vicar of Wakefield," by 
Goldsmith, and also to the works of Shake- 
speare. Goethe became acquainted with the 
family of a minister, living about twenty miles 
from Strasburg, and this family exactly met 
his ideals found in that of the "Vicar of Wake- 
field." Frederika, the youngest daughter, was 
a perfect German type — ^light hair and blue 
eyes. The poet fell desperately in love with 
her and she with him. Napoleon did not make 
a greater mistake when he divorced Josephine 
than Goethe made when he broke with Fred- 
erika. The divorcing of Josephine probably 
led to the fall of Napoleon, and the conduct of 
Goethe towards the beautiful Frederika forever 
blasted all prospects for his happiness in the 
domestic relations. He thus writes: "Gretchen 
had been taken away from me ; Annette had left 
me ; now, for the first time, I was guilty. I had 
wounded the most lovely heart to its very depths ; 



636 CULTURA. 

and the period of gloomy repentance, with the 
absence of a refreshing love, to which it had 
grown accustomed, was most agonizing, nay, 
insupportable." Frederika never married, and 
declared that the heart that Goethe had loved 
should never love another. 

Goethe completed his course at the Univer- 
sity of Strasburg, and received the degree of 
doctor of law. He also made considerable 
progress in the line of authorship. 

GOETHE AT WEIMER. 

Soon after his graduation, Goethe produced 
a work that made him famous. It was "Goetz 
von Berlichingen" — a book afterwards trans- 
lated into English by Walter Scott. It was 
through the study of Shakespeare that he was 
enabled to write this book, and it is said that 
Walter Scott was inspired by Goethe's book to 
write "Waverly." 

Goetz was the last of the barons, and sug- 
gested to Scott the propriety of rehabilitating 
in fiction the vanished ages. While "Goetz von 
Berlichingen" was certainly not equal to Shake- 
speare, it probably comes nearer to it than any 
other German work. "Werther" is Goethe's 



CULTURA. 637 

next great work. It is the lifelike picture of a 
young man who loved unwisely and committed 
suicide. Some have thought that "Werther" 
was both Goethe and Jerusalem, both in one; 
but I am not certain that such was the case. It 
is certain, however, that no man was ever more 
in his books than was this great German author. 

Goethe spent much of his time during the 
year 1787 at work on "Wilheim Meister." It is 
really an autobiography in fiction, and, in order 
to fully understand the Hfe of Goethe, the 
student must give much care to the study of 
this immortal work. 

Goethe found time at Weimer to give much 
attention to the study of science. He became 
one of the greatest scientists of his day, as well 
as a student in every department of culture. 
The court of Weimer, at that time, represented 
the highest culture in the world, and Goethe 
was its central figure. 

Goethe spent two years, from 1786 to 1788, 
in Italy, which was an important epoch in 
developing his intellectual life. He began there 
his "Iphigenie," which is indeed his greatest 
classic work. Soon after his return from Italy, 
Goethe published his great historical drama. 



638 CULTURA. 

entitled "Egmont." It pictures the great con- 
flict between the Netherlands and Spain. 
Egmont was executed by the Spaniards at 
Brussels. The place of execution is pointed 
out to the visitor with as much care as is the 
field of Waterloo. 

GOETHE AND SCHILLER. 

The friendship between Goethe and Schiller 
became indeed beautiful, and it was a great 
blessing to both. Goethe had, to a great ex- 
tent, lost his poetic fire, and Schiller appeared 
to stimulate him exactly at the right time. 
Schiller had too much fire and needed the 
guiding and checking influence of Goethe. In 
1798, Goethe wrote Schiller as follows: "You 
have given me a second youth and refashioned 
me as a poet, which I may be said to have 
ceased to be." Schiller was probably more in- 
debted to Goethe than was Goethe to Schiller. 

Goethe's "Hermann and Dorothea" is one 
of the poet's most popular poems. It is a 
beautiful love-story, and portrays true love in 
the humble German home. It should be care- 
fully studied in all our high schools and 
colleges. 



CULTURA. 639 

GOETHE'S "FAUST." 

Goethe worked on his "Faust" sixty years, 
longer than any other author on a single 
book. Marlowe's "Faustus" preceded Goethe's 
work, and Goethe at one time thought of 
translating Marlowe's "Faustus" into German. 
It is thus very evident that Goethe was greatly 
indebted to Marlowe. These works are an 
interesting study of some of the peculiar char- 
acteristics of the English and the German 
minds. Yet the two races have much in 
common. 

No one can understand "Faust" without a 
thorough knowledge of the life of Goethe. No 
great writer, unless it was Milton, was so 
much in his books as was the greatest of 
German writers. No one can think of Faust 
without, in some sense, identifying him with 
Goethe, and "Faust" is the fragment of a still 
greater biography. 

"Faust" is certainly the greatest of Goethe's 
works, and one of the greatest productions of 
any age. If Homer represents the highest 
ancient culture, Dante the highest culture of 
the Middle Ages, Shakespeare the highest of 

21 



640 CULTURA. 

the Renaissance, Goethe is evidently the true 
representative of the highest culture of the 
modern age. 

The following language of Oscar Browning, 
in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," is worthy 
of the most careful study: "Founded on the 
well-known popular tale, indebted for its inter- 
est and pathos to incidents of universal experi- 
ence, it deals with the deepest problems which 
can engage the mind of man. In this combi- 
nation of qualities it is perhaps superior to any 
one of Shakespeare's plays. The plot is as 
simple and as well known to the audience as 
the plot of a Greek tragedy. The innocence 
and the fall of Gretchen appeal to every heart; 
the inward struggles of Faust, like those of 
Hamlet, and the antagonism of the sensual and 
moral principles, interest the reader in propor- 
tion as his own mind and nature have been 
similarly stirred. Each line has been made to 
stand for eternity; not a word is thrown away; 
the poem has entered, as a whole, into the mind 
and thought of modern Germany." 

The second part of "Faust" has not been 
properly understood and appreciated; but it 
now appears to be coming to its own. Instead 



CULTURA. 641 

of now being considered an afterthought, the 
best critics think that the poet finished at the 
age of eighty what he had planned sixty years 
before. The first part may be called the 
microcosm of the individual, while the second 
part is the macrocosm of society. 

Schiller was the representative poet of the 
Kantian philosophy in somewhat a different 
sense from the way in which Goethe represented 
the philosophy of Schelling. The philosophy of 
Kant was thoroughly prosaic, and the poetry 
of Schiller was complemental to it. It was 
entirely different with the relation of Goethe 
to Schelling. The philosophy of Schelling was 
highly poetic itself, and consequently was rep- 
resented by many poets. It is proper here to 
state that Goethe was by far the greatest light 
of this school. Nature was idealized, and men 
looked up through nature to nature's God. The 
system was highly pantheistic, but it would not 
be correct to consider all its great writers as 
deniers of the personality of God. Goethe cer- 
tainly did believe in the personality of God. The 
following language sufficiently establishes this 
fact: "What were a God who would only impel 
from without, who would let the universe revolve 



642 CULTURA. 

at the end of his finger ? It becomes him to move 
the world from within, to cherish the nature of 
himself, himself in nature, so that whatever 
lives and moves and has its being in him, may 
never fail to have his power and spirit." Again, 
Goethe says: "My God, to whom I have been 
true, has secretly blessed me, for my condition 
is entirely hid from men; they see and hear 
nothing of it, but whatever can be revealed of 
it, I will joyfully communicate to you." 

Like Shakespeare, Goethe was a student of 
the Bible, and highly appreciated it, not only 
for the great spiritual truths contained in it, 
but also as the means of the highest culture. 
He says: "The farther the ages advance in cul- 
tivation, the more can the Bible be used, partly 
as the foundation, partly as the means of 
education, not, of course, by superficial, but by 
really wise, men." 

Goethe was much opposed to an imitation 
of the theater on the part of the clergy and 
the church. At that time, under the influence 
of Schiller and others, there was a tendency to 
convert the churches into theaters. Goethe, in 
"Faust," severely condemns this. Wagner says 
to Faust, "I have often heard say, a player 



CULTURA. 643 

might instruct a priest." Faust answers, *'Yes, 
when the priest is a player." Wagner again 
says, "But it is elocution that makes the orator's 
success. I feel well that I am still behind- 
hand." Faust replies, "Try what can be got by 
honest means. Be no tinkling fool ! Reason and 
good sense express themselves with little art." 
Goethe had many peculiar views, and fre- 
quently contradicted himself; but he was really 
a defender of Christianity. He and Napoleon 
Bonaparte became friends, and each regarded 
the other as the greatest man in the world in 
his own special line. They both studied the 
life of Christ, and I will close this chapter by 
giving the estimate of each. Napoleon says: 
"I search in vain in history to find one equal 
to Jesus Christ, anything which can approach 
the gospel. Neither history nor humanity, nor 
the ages, nor nature, offer me anything with 
which I am able to compare it or explain it." 
Goethe thus testifies: "The human mind, no 
matter how much it may advance in intellectual 
culture and in the extent and depth of the 
knowledge of nature, will never transcend the 
height and moral culture of Christianity, as it 
shines and glows in the person of its Founder." 



CHAPTER VII. 

Mendelssohn and the Influence of Music 
UPON Civilization. 

Music is the art of tones. A tone stands 
in contrast with a voice, both being sounds. A 
tone is due to periodic, a voice to non-periodic, 
air vibrations. Time is the condition of music, 
and thus every trace of the three dimensions 
of space. This fact accounts for the untram- 
meled character of the mind's production in 
music and for the high ideality of this art. 
The content of music is man's inmost emotional 
nature. The emotions of man in the presence 
of the facts of nature or the experiences of 
human life find voice in music. With its un- 
utterable and indefinable message from the in- 
visible to the soul of man, music summons us 
away from the known hard world of reality to 
the unknown, invisible and perfect world of 
ideals, where things are as we want them to be. 
It is an ecstasy of feeling, not a clear vision. 
Music can not tell a story ; it expresses emotions. 

Chopin's "Funeral March" means different 
644 



CULTURA. 645 

things to different listeners, but the emotions 
of all are thrilled. Music can not paint a pic- 
ture. When the same piece of music suggests 
the same picture to different minds, it is because 
of the association of colors, ideas, etc., that the 
tones have; not because the composer has the 
picture in mind to represent. True, in a freak- 
ish spirit, Wagner can imitate natural sounds 
in music; but his great underlying theme is a 
lonely soul longing for congenial companion- 
ship, which is the story of his own life. Thus, 
music is a call to experience, not to ideas, and 
is hence the most subjective of the arts. The 
attempt to fit music to words is like the attempt 
to define a feeling, is artificial, and not within 
the true province of music. (See Home's 
"Philosophy of Education.") 

When I think of the influence of music upon 
civilization, I think at once of a trio of great 
names — Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Mozart. 
The first belonged to the nineteenth century, 
the second to the eighteenth, and the third to 
the last quarter of the eighteenth and the first 
quarter of the nineteenth. 

Felix Mendelssohn was born in 1809, a year 
prolific in the birth of great men; for it was 



646 CULTURA. 

the year in which were born Charles Darwin, 
W. E. Gladstone and Alfred Tennyson. When 
very young, Mendelssohn showed great musical 
ability. The poet Goethe was among the first 
to discover the marvelous musical ability in 
young Mendelssohn. This great musician never 
forgot the greatest of German poets, and paid 
him several visits. 

The young artist was delighted with his 
first visit to Paris, and, although somewhat dis- 
appointed with the musical culture of the city, 
he formed some lasting friendships. He made 
other visits to Paris, and gave successful con- 
certs. In 1827 he gave in Berlin his first opera, 
in which the principal characters of Cervante's 
"Don Quixote" were introduced. 

Pie next traveled in England, and was 
almost overjoyed at his kind reception by all. 
A critical English writer now claims that 
London is the chief musical center in the world, 
and it was certainly a great center in the days 
of Mendelssohn. The young musician gave his 
overture to Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's 
Dream," the reception of which was unbounded. 
He made in all ten visits to London. 

His oratorio of "St. Paul" was performed in 



CULTURA. 647 

1837, under his own direction, at the Birming- 
ham festival, where it was received with the 
greatest enthusiasm. This oratorio, and the 
one upon EHjah, made him famous throughout 
the musical world. These are probably his 
greatest works. He spent nine years in the 
composition of his "Elijah," which was espe- 
cially written for the Birmingham festival, and 
performed under his direction in 1846. He 
died in 1847. 

Mendelssohn's title as the greatest composer 
of all ages can not well be contested. While 
his works were of the highest classical style, 
he had an element of melody never equaled. 
He also had in him that element of common 
sense which made him both conservative and 
progressive. 

1. Music is natural to man, and it has 
always had a powerful influence upon him. It 
appeals to the aesthetic element in his nature, 
which element perceives and feels the beauty 
in nature and art. Music is very important in 
educating this element, which element is very 
important to the progress of civilization. With- 
out constant striving to reach perfection from 
the standpoint of the aesthetic we would not 



648 CULTURA. 

have beautiful cities and monuments; such, for 
example, as Paris, France, and its magnificent 
monuments. 

2. Music may be used in the interest of 
good, or in the interest of evil, and its influence 
is very powerful in either direction. While 
music may assist in worship, it would scarcely 
be correct to say that it is worship itself. It 
possesses power and enchantment that can as 
easily be associated with vice as with virtue. 
In secular entertainments, where there are no 
moral qualities, we find music. Music is asso- 
ciated with the dance, with the theater, and with 
the lowest and most corrupt places of amuse- 
ment. Some appear to think that there is wor- 
ship in sweet voices and artistic music, but 
such is not the case. It may assist worship, but 
it is not worship itself. We may admire it for 
its beauty, enrapturing sounds and pleasing sen- 
sations, but there is no worship in it. In the 
art of music, there is no more religion than in 
the arts of reading and speaking. No one 
supposes that he is worshiping when he is 
reading a secular newspaper. A young lady 
does not associate the reading of a fashionable 
novel with religion, unless, indeed, her con- 



CULTURA. 649 

science chastises her on account of the char- 
acter of the book. In these there is as much 
worship as in playing a piano or picking a 
banjo. Music is a fine art, a delightful and 
useful one. It should be encouraged, for it 
can be used for the benefit of man. It is not 
itself either religious or irreligious, but it may- 
be used either in the interest of religion or 
infidelity. 

Music may be made either beneficial or 
injurious to worship. If it leads to formality 
and thoughtlessness, it is, of course, injurious. 
In order for it to be beneficial in worship, it 
must be the means of arousing the religious 
emotions in man and imparting important in- 
struction. At least, it should suggest pure 
and holy thoughts. We should sing in order 
to assist in the worship. Some sing because 
they love music, and they have not a spiritual 
idea when they sing; in fact, some of the 
leaders of church music are positively irrelig- 
ious. Mr. Moody thought this one of the 
greatest evils of our day. 

Paul, in Col. 3:15-17, teaches the true 
spiritual nature of church music. While there 
may be a distinction between service and wor- 



650 CULTURA. 

ship, in the service of God there certainly 
should be worship. All music which does not 
assist in ministering to spiritual life should be 
discarded from the worship. To turn a church 
into a theater is certainly a great sin. It would 
be well for all religious leaders to think on this 
subject, for Mr. Moody was evidently right in 
insisting upon reformation. The tendency to 
formality, which is so fearfully visible in the 
church of Gk)d, can only be counteracted by 
greater consecration to God on the part of 
professed Christians. 

3. Music educates the sensibilities, and 
should be especially encouraged for this pur- 
pose. I do not believe the true educational 
value of music has been sufficiently appreciated. 
The late Charles Darwin appreciated this fact, 
and some time before his death regretted that 
he had not listened to good music every day. 
The sensibilities should be educated with the 
greatest care, and music is very essential to 
the accomplishment of this. The proper educa- 
tion of the sensibilities has a very powerful 
influence upon the progress of civilization. 

4. Patriotic and sacred music have a great 
influence upon the progress of civilization. The 



CULTURA. 651 

national air will arouse a whole nation to 
action quicker than almost anything else. In 
France the national air was almost as effective 
as Napoleon's cannon. The martial "Psalms" 
prepared Cromwell's Ironsides to drive every- 
thing before them. Luther's "Hymns" greatly 
helped the Swedes to drive the Imperial army 
from the field at the battle of Lutzen. 

Sacred music has been very effective in 
evangelizing the world. Sankey was almost as 
important as Moody, and even Sam Jones could 
not get along without a singer. Sacred music 
greatly influences the heathen mind, and pre- 
pares it for the reception of the gospel. 

Music religious heat inspires, 

It wakes the soul and lifts it high, 

And wings it with sublime desires, 

And fits it to bespeak the Deity. — Addison, 

5. The mission of music is to minister to 

life. 

God is its author and not man; 
He laid the keynote of all harmonies. 
He planned all perfect combinations, 
And he made us so that we can hear and understand. 

— Brainard. 

Music can not accomplish its mission unless 

it does, in the best way, minister to the life of 

man. It thus has a divine mission. 



652 CULTURA. 

Yes, music is the prophet's art, 
Among the gifts that God hath sent, 
One of the most magnificent. — Longfellow. 

This part of our theme we wish to illustrate 
from two of Robert Browning's most interest- 
ing poems — "Abt Vogler" and "Pippa Songs." 
Browning understood the very soul of music, 
and these poems best present his thoughts on 
the subject. Abt Vogler was an organist of 
the eighteenth century, born at Wurzberg, in 
1749. He was not a first-class composer, and 
left no work of great merit behind him, and for 
this very reason he best suited the poet's pur- 
pose, which was to represent spontaneous music, 
and its effects upon the soul. It was upon the 
deep spiritual truths the organist was thinking 
about that Browning built the lofty hopes 
revealed in the last verses of the poem. 

Abt Vogler was educated for the church, 
and his musical talent was developed to the 
highest extent. He was especially gifted as an 
organist, and the tones of the organ assist 
spiritual meditations as do the tones of no other 
instrument. In the entire biographical list of 
musicians, none could have been selected that 
would have suited to illustrate Browning's 



CULTURA. 653 

thoughts as Abt Vogler. His success was 
with the organ, and he was intensely devoted 
to it all his life. To him its tones were almost 
divine, and, as some one has said, he died in 
the harness. 

This poem has been called the deepest, rich- 
est and fullest poem on music to be found in 
the English language. The following language 
from the gifted Edward Bur doe is of the high- 
est interest: "The musician has been extempo- 
rising on his organ, and as the performance, in 
its beauty and completeness, impresses his mind 
with wonderful and mysterious imagery, he 
wishes it could be permanent. He has created 
something, but it has vanished. He compares 
it to a palace built of sweet sounds, such a 
structure as angels or demons might have 
reared for Solomon; a magic building wherein 
to lodge some beloved princess, a palace more 
beautiful than anything which human architect 
could plan or power of man construct. His 
music structure has been real to him; it took 
shape in his brain, it was his creation: surely, 
somewhere, somehow, it must be permanent. 
It was too beautiful, too perfect, to be lost! 
But Vogler was but an extemporiser, and such 



654 CULTURA. 

musicians can not give permanence to their 
performances. He has reached a state of al- 
most ecstasy, and the spiritual has asserted its 
power over the material, raising the soul to 
heaven and bringing down heaven to earth." 

The poet calls music the very finger of 
God, and he makes it more spiritual than any 
other art. It suggests to him the permanence 
of good, and the nullity of all evil. Both Hegel 
and Emerson taught the doctrine so sublimely 
presented in this poem. Browning belonged to 
the German Idealistic school, and he fully be- 
lieved in the immortality of good and of all the 
higher emotions. He believed that the spiritual 
was more real and durable than the material. 

Miss Ormerod, in a paper before the Brown- 
ing Society of London, in 1888, thus explained 
the musical terms of the poem: "C Major is 
what may be called the natural scale, having no 
sharps or flats in its signature. A Minor, with 
A (a third below C) for its keynote, has the 
Same signature, but sharps are introduced for 
the formation of correct intervals. Pauer says 
that minor keys are chosen to express 'intense 
seriousness, soft melancholy, longing, sadness 
and passionate grief;* whilst major keys, with 



CULTURA. 655 

sharps and flats in their signatures, are said to 
have distinctive qualities; perhaps Browning 
chose C Major for the key, as the one most 
alhed to matters of every-day Ufe, including 
rest and sleep. The common chord, as it is 
called, the keynote with its third and fifth, 
contains the rudiments of all music." 

"Abt Vogler" may be difficult to under- 
stand, but the more it is studied the higher it 
lifts the soul from earth towards the very 
heavens themselves. 

"Pippa Passes" shows how near God is to 
man in conscience; if we trust him, he will 
stand by us in all the great crises of life. It is 
No. 1 of "Bells and Pomegranates," published 
in 1841. It is of the highest musical and relig- 
ious interest. Browning has no use for agnos- 
ticism or pessimism; to him, God was better 
known than anything else in the universe. He 
does not look upon God as being at a distance, 
but with Paul he could say that we live and 
move and have our being in God. The poet 
does not ignore evil; to him it is negative, and 
we should overcome evil with good. This 
view is now being largely accepted. Pippa 
sings ; 



656 CULTURA. 

"The year's at the spring, 
The day's at the morn; 
Morning's at seven; 
The hillside's dew-pearled; 
The lark's on the wing; 
The snail's on the thorn; 
God's in his heaven — 
All's right with the world." 

Pippa is the name of a girl employed at the 
silk-mills at a town in northern Italy. New 
Year's Day is the only holiday she has during 
the whole year, and she determines to make 
the best of it. She sings for God and humanity 
in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and at 
night. Her songs are soul-stirring, and go 
to the very conscience. They well illustrate the 
divine mission of music; at least, they show 
how the truth can be made most effective in 
music. The morning song, **God's in His 
Heaven," reaches the heart of the murderer 
and adulterer and the murderess and adulteress. 
They are made to intensely hate their crime. 
The noon hymn, "Give Her but a Least Excuse 
to Love Me," reconciles the husband to his 
young wife. It is certainly a very effective 
sermon. The evening song, "No Need the 
King Should Ever Die," saves the life of the 



CULTURA. 657 

Emperor of Austria, and doubtlessly other 
lives. The night hymn, "Suddenly God Took 
Me," saved Pippa from disgrace and a horrible 
fate. Our own age needs this wonderful lesson 
on what a young maid could accomplish in one 
day in song. It teaches us the importance of 
devoting our time more strictly to the uplifting 
of humanity and the progress of civilization. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Robert Browning and the Victorian Age. 

Like most other poets, Robert Browning 
began to write poetry when very young. He 
was only twenty when "Pauline" was produced, 
and it is certainly a great poem for one so 
young. At the age of twenty-three he wrote 
"Paracelsus," one of his greatest poems. Its 
novel conception and beauty of execution caused 
Harriet Martineau to predict for Browning the 
very highest position in the list of nineteenth- 
century poets. She surely made no mistake, 
for he is certainly one of the very greatest of 
modern poets. 

In early life Mr. Browning became a great 
admirer of Shelley, and read all the works of 
this great poet. Shelley was a disciple of 
Plato, and one of the greatest modern repre- 
sentatives of the classic school. Mr. Vida D. 
Scudder, in a paper read before the Boston 
Browning Society, says: "Nothing can be more 
delightful than to watch the various results of 
the action of classic influence in the time, say, 

658 



CULTURA. 659 

of Spenser, the time of Addison, the time of 
Swinburne and Leconte de Lisle. But we are 
not to explore so wide a territory to-day; we 
are simply to study classic influence in the 
work of two of the great moderns — Shelley and 
Browning. The subject is broad enough still; 
for with Shelley we have Hellenism at work 
in revolutionary times, with Browning in the 
age of Victoria; with Shelley we have a disciple 
of Greece, with Browning a critic; with Shelley 
we watch classical influence at play in a nature 
essentially lyrical, with Browning in a nature 
essentially dramatic. Yet Browning, by his own 
reverent claim, is the spiritual successor of 
Shelley. It is significant that there are the two 
great moderns in whom Hellenism is most 
vital and vivid." 

Browning is especially the interpreter of 
Greek life. Mr. Scudder is certainly correct 
in the following: "It will be interesting to see 
what a poet of this defiantly modern attitude 
will make of Greek subjects. Despite his 
alleged indifference, he can not let them alone. 
Through the long sequence of his work, 
beginning in boyhood, there are allusions, 
suggestions; there are notable occasional 



660 CULTURA. 

poems. Finally, in later life, his delightful 
imaginative curiosity, satiated in roaming 
through his own times on the Renascence, 
turns back to that wide world of antiquity, ex- 
plores it a little, and presents us on its return 
with *Balaustion's Adventure,* Aristophanes' 
'Apology' and the translation of the 'Aga- 
memnon/ " 

Both Shelley and Browning belonged to the 
Idealistic school of Kant and his successors, 
and this can be readily perceived in almost 
everything they wrote. With Browning, the 
great realities in the universe are God and the 
human soul; and it was perfectly natural for 
him, when dwelling upon classic literature, to 
portray Greek life. He gives to the modern 
world entirely new ideas of Greek life. 
"Cleon" is one of his most interesting poems, 
and no one can read it without having the 
greatest sympathy for Cleon. When I first 
read it, I felt that I wanted to preach the 
gospel to Cleon; and I wanted to study anew 
Paul's speech on Mars' Hill. This poem sug- 
gests that Christianity meets a want in man 
not met by the religion of the Greeks. It meets 
man's instinctive longings for a future state. 



CULTURA. 661 

I know of no one who has so brilliantly delin- 
eated Greek society as has Mr. Browning. He 
puts us in complete sympathy with Greek life. 

Mr. Browning wrote "Cleon" in 1855, and 
it was a long time before he had much more 
to say about the classic world. From 1871 to 
1880 this great Englishman wrote all his longer 
classic poems, and they are the result of his 
great intellect in his very prime. 

In 1846, Browning married Elizabeth Bar- 
rett, who had already made considerable reputa- 
tion in the poetic art. They spent most of their 
married life in Italy; and indeed a beautiful 
life it was, when two such gifted souls became 
one. Mrs. Browning died in 1861, and the 
poet greatly mourned his loss. He spent the 
rest of his lonely life in London, devoting his 
time with commendable zeal to his professional 
work. He was by profession strictly a poet, 
and probably wrote more in quantity than any 
other English poet. He is one of the most 
original and profound of all modern poets. He 
will probably, in the future, be classed with 
Shakespeare. 

It was a long time before Browning's great- 
ness as a poet was recognized. It is said that 



(i^2 CULTURA. 

for a long time after its publication not a copy 
of "Pauline" was sold. Yet a few years ago 
the Browning Society of Boston offered $400 
for a single copy, but did not secure it, as it 
brought twice that amount. This great poet 
knew he had a mission in this world; so he 
toiled on at his work, patiently waiting until 
the world was ready to receive his great mes- 
sage. He is a preacher of righteousness, and 
will greatly benefit all who read his marvelous 
productions. 

1. Browning was a great dramatic poet. 
Browning was a man of marvelous personality, 
and you find him in all his works. He studied 
every stratum of society and every form of 
civilization, and in some way all are represented 
in his works. He is one of the most ethical 
of poets, and his interest in human character 
is what influenced him to the dramatic. Mr. 
Henry Jones, in a paper before the Boston 
Browning Society, gives the following criticism 
on Browning as a dramatic poet: "I do not 
mean that Browning's dramas are too moral or 
that he is too great a teacher of good. That, 
I believe, is not possible. What I mean is that 
his moral interests are too obtrusive, and that 



CULTURA. 663 

he is too conscious of a mission; and a mission 
destroys the drama. No sterner moral lesson 
is taught in all literature than Hamlet teaches 
to his mother in the closet scene. But the 
scene comes by the way. There is no mechan- 
ical preparation for it, and no reminiscence of 
it after it is over. The poet never purposed 
it. It is unpremeditated, spontaneous, the 
product of the moment, and, therefore, irresist- 
ibly impressive. Again and again in Shake- 
speare we find some little incident or stray word 
sets free some great conception." This criticism 
is doubtless correct; but Browning's high spir- 
itual lessons constitute his strongest point, even 
if they somewhat detract from his power as 
a dramatic poet. He was certainly not equal 
to Shakespeare as a dramatist, but, after all, he 
was a great dramatic poet. It really commends 
Browning to me to find him in all his works. 
Browning is noted for the rapidity with 
which his plays move onward. Mr. Henry 
Jones says: "But Browning's plays move 
straight onward. The chief characters, envel- 
oped in their own moods as in a driving storm, 
turn not from their predestined course. Out- 
ward circumstances serve to reveal their quali- 



664 CULTURA. 

ties, but there is otherwise little response to 
them, and little development. They are freight- 
ed with their destiny from the first — Mildred 
with her woe, Pym with his great love for 
England, Luria with the tropic wealth of his 
generous nature, Columbe with the simple 
maidenhood that will always set love above 
the pomp of state, and Valence with his stormy 
straightforwardness and his great heart. 
Browning's greater characters are so charged 
with their passion, whether it is of the intel- 
lect or of the heart, that the smaller things of 
life can not affect them. In fact, Browning 
can not deal in delicate lights and shades. He 
plays on no lute or lyre, but on an organ that 
always blows with full power." 

"Strafford" is one of Browning's greatest 
dramas. It portrays one of the most interest- 
ing periods in English history. It was the 
great conflict between the king and his people, 
and finally resulted in the English Revolution. 
Strafford was the most important figure on the 
side of the king, and his devotion to royalty 
at last brought his head to the block. His pub- 
lic career was indeed a tragedy. It is claimed 
that Shelley once selected Charles I, for a 



CULTURA. ' 665 

tragedy, and that this had an influence in de- 
termining Browning to select Strafford. It has 
also been thought that Browning has been in- 
debted to Shakespeare's "J^^i^s Caesar." This 
may be true, but it does not change the fact 
that "Strafford" is a great drama. Pym, the 
hero in "Strafford," was like Brutus, the friend 
of the man whom he intended to sacrifice in 
the interest of his country. Browning, like 
Carlyle and Macaulay, honestly paints the Puri- 
tan character. "Strafford" is an historical drama 
worthy of very careful study. 

"Luria," which was first published in 1846, 
is thought by many to be the greatest of Brown- 
ing's dramatic poems. Luria, the hero, was a 
Moorish general in the employment of the 
Florentine Republic; and Braccio, a character 
almost as prominent, was a noted diplomatist. 
It is passing strange that so great a poem as 
"Luria" should remain so long unnoticed by 
the critical world. It is claimed that so late 
as 1860, for six months at a time, his publishers 
would report that not a single volume of his 
poems had been sold. His wife died in 1861, 
and I have often thought it sad that she did 
not liye long enough to see her devoted husband 



666 ' CULTURA. 

recognized as the greatest poet of the age. 

The historic background of "Luria" is found 
in Florence in 1406, when that city made a 
successful and final war against Pisa. While 
history identifies neither Luria nor Braccio, it 
does give some hints by which both the Moor 
and the diplomatist may possibly be found. At 
least, Browning got a hint, and, as Emerson 
says, "When a god would ride, anything serves 
him for a chariot." 

"Luria" is a masterpiece, and has many 
important lessons for this age. Every states- 
man should study it. John White Chadwick 
gives us the following appropriate words: 
"The spiritual laws are as invariable as those 
which keep the stars from wrong; and that 
which Luria did somewhere between Florence 
and Pisa, or nowhere save in Browning's glori- 
ous imagination, is being done by thousands 
and tens of thousands whom no poet ever 
sings; and that which those plotting and coun- 
terplotting against Luria had done for them 
by his nobility, thousands and tens of thousands 
every day are having done for them by men 
and women who are no Lurias in their height 
of circumstance, but only in their height of 



CULTURA. (£7 

soul. They conquer by the vision of a truth 
and goodness whose beseeching can not be with- 
stood. It is not anything they say, but what 
they do, that is their criticism on their folly, 
and their invitation and incitement to the higher 
things. The most of us can find such without 
painful searching. We desire them, and they 
are sitting at our doors. One of the best in 
literature is Browning's "Luria." In literature 
and life they furnish us the increments by 
which 'inexhaustibly the spirit grows' in power 
and use and happy faith in nature, man and 
God. Let us walk, our weak hands in their 
strong hands." 

2. Robert Browning was an art-philosopher. 
In him art and philosophy, in an important 
sense, were united, and this union was essential 
to a wise development of both. The sacrifice 
of the invisible to the visible has always been 
one of the greatest mistakes of art, and Brown- 
ing was too much of a philosopher to make 
this mistake. He would let the visible go to 
the dogs rather than make such a blunder. 

Browning was in spirit Gothic; and always 
considered Gothic art far superior to the classic. 
The classic was all right in its way, but it 



668 CULTURA. 

lacked the soul, especially in its revival. Our 
poet was a great individualist in art, as well as 
in everything else; he studied the human soul. 
His art-poems are the study of character in 
different forms and periods in the history of 
art. 

In depicting the comedy and tragedy of life 
on a grand scale, Browning may be compared 
to Dante. He was not so sad as the great 
Italian, but it should be remembered that he 
lived in a brighter age. While our poet re- 
jected the materialistic tendencies of modern 
science, he was strictly scientific in his grasp 
of facts. While Browning was a Romanticist, 
he was not a visionary; the scientific age in 
which he lived counteracted this tendency. His 
views of the mission of art are much the same 
as those of Ruskin. With both, the reality 
was in the spirit; and when the spirit was 
sacrificed to outward ornament, art was on the 
decline. Art was greatest when it was the 
instructor and Inspirer of all that was the most 
noble in the Italian republics. The great artists 
lived in a spiritual atmosphere, and to them 
the New Jerusalem was not far away. The 
artist in that age went to pray before he went 



CULTURA. 669 

to work, and he felt that the Almighty was 
with him in his work. Art has no better friend 
than religion. 

The subjective and objective poet may be 
combined in one person. Daniel Dorchester, 
Jr., says: "I believe that they were in Robert 
Browning; similarly the subjective and objec- 
tive artist were one in Raphael. And I come 
to the conclusion of this paper with the strong 
desire that Browning had written one more 
art poem, exemplifying how the idealism of the 
old painters of Florence and the realism of 
Andrea del Sarto, each alike one-sided and 
struggling for supremacy in 'Fra Lippo Lippi,' 
became one in Raphael, fullnDrbed artist, making 
the ideal more real and the real more ideal." 

3. Browning was really a master of rhyme. 
He always emphasized the internal more than 
the external; but he perfectly understood how 
to use rhyme, when he saw proper so to do. 
His shorter poems fully illustrate this fact. 
Mr. Arthur Symons says : "In one very im- 
portant matter, that of rhyme, he is, perhaps, 
the greatest master of our language; in single 
and double, in simple and grotesque alike, he 
succeeds in fitting rhyme to rhyme with a per- 



670 CULTURA. 

fection which I have not found in any other 
poet of any age." 

Browning never sacrifices the thought to 
rhyme. In his rhyme, he appears to select the 
words he would naturally select if he were 
writing prose. The great variety of his stanza- 
forms is another evidence of his mastery of 
rhyme. He probably has more of them than 
any other English poet, and in many of them 
the rhyme structure is very difficult and 
complex. 

The following, by Mr. William J. Rolfe, 
will be read with interest: "Whether rhyme is 
doomed to disappear from our poetry, as a 
device suited only to tickle the ear in the child- 
hood of poetical culture, discarded with grow- 
ing taste, as the child throws away the baby 
rattle, I will not venture to say; but these 
heroic rhymes, so popular in an age that 
reckoned nothing ^classical' that was not pedan- 
tically formal and artificial, have certainly had 
their day — at least, for long poems, or until 
another Browning appears. He has revived and 
revolutionized the heroic couplet; his amazing 
command of rhyme and of the more refined 
harmonies of rhythm, enabling him to get 



CULTURA. 671 

exquisite music out of this old-fashioned jingle 
and jog-trot, and to continue it indefinitely 
without tiring us. Whatever we may think of 
*Sordello' in other respects, we must admit that 
it is a masterpiece of rhymed measure. The 
run-on lines are so frequent that we hardly 
notice that they are arranged in heroic couplets. 
In Pope, as I have said, there is a point and 
pause at the end of nearly every line; here not 
one line in seven is thus marked off. A person 
not familiar with the poem might listen to long 
passages read with proper emphasis and ex- 
pression and take them for blank verse. The 
same is true of shorter poems in the same 
measure." 

4. No better general term than the moiio- 
logue can be used to describe Robert Brown- 
ing's poetry. Hamlet's soliloquy, taken by it- 
self, is a monologue. Browning has with 
marvelous perfection developed the possibilities 
of this form. From the standpoints of the 
monologue, we are able to see in unity every- 
thing he has written. We naturally pass from 
"Paracelsus" to "Sordello," and from "Sor- 
dello" to "The Ring and the Book." These are 
the very best examples of monologue, and I 

22 



672 CULTURA. 

make no mistake in saying they find Browning 
at his best. I do not mean that they are supe- 
rior to "Saul" and some of his other poems, but 
the poet certainly does reach his zenith in some 
portions of "The Ring and the Book." Pom- 
pilia is one of the most interesting characters 
in all Browning's works. Count Guido is a 
thorough scoundrel, but excused himself very 
much as men now excuse their villainies. 

Mr. Percy Stickney Grant thus speaks of 
Browning's monologue: "The art of Browning 
in monologue was developed, it would seem, as 
a consequence of moral qualities in himself and 
his time. He shared the serious questions of 
his generation, and desired to teach his fellows 
truths of the spirit. He chose a poetic form, 
monologue, because that form permitted a com- 
bination of action and description, where his 
personal interpretation of the story might at 
any time intrude itself. This method led, 
naturally, to a cold, metaphysical and lifeless 
treatment of his subjects, which were little more 
than abstractions, until the discovery of Italy 
as a rich storehouse of personages and inci- 
dents fortunately rescued him, and gave his 
themes warmth and motion. Browning is never 



CULTURA. 673 

truly a dramatic poet — one who lets life act 
itself freely before his readers. He muses upon 
life in very vigorous speech, to be sure, but 
still in terms of the intellectual rather than in 
terms of action. He is analytical, searching 
the consciousness of his characters for motives, 
moods and spiritual processes, and these he 
expounds with all the virile brilliancy of his 
strong nature and the egoism of the 
monologue." 

5. Browning was a great optimist. Brown- 
ing's optimism is the result of his faith in God 
and a future state. The human soul and God 
are the great realities in the universe; and the 
possibilities of man's likeness to God must of 
necessity lead to optimism. Man certainly can 
not be discouraged in the battle of life when 
he is fully conscious that he is working out a 
great moral ideal under the providential care 
of God. God is love and manifests his presence 
in man as love. 

"Be warned by me, 
Never you cheat yourself one instant ! Love, 
Give love, ask only love, and leave the rest !" 

Browning has some important suggestions 
on the problem of evil. Love is made perfect 



674 CULTURA. 

through suffering. Evil is necessary to the 
highest manifestation and development of love. 
Had it not been for evil in the world we would 
not have had the marvelous manifestations of 
God's love in the incarnation. "Man is a god, 
though in the germ," said Browning; and if 
he will do his duty it does not yet appear what 
he shall be. It is God's intention to make 
every human being in this universe as happy 
as he will be. God invites all to come to him 
and have life. 

Robert Browning looked upon the moral 
man as a growth through conflict. While we 
may not be able to fully understand the cause 
of evil in this world, the universality of God's 
love will so overrule it that in no way can it 
prevent the greatest good to man. Browning 
agrees with Paul that evil can only be overcome 
with good. In "Gerard de Lairesse," Browning 
says: 

"What were life 
Did soul stand still therein, forego her strife 
Through the ambiguous Present to the goal 
Of some all-reconciling Future?" 

The human will is essential to man's moral 
progress; and because some refuse to accept 



CULTURA. 675 

God's love to the race, they can not interfere 
with the purposes of God to man. We can not 
afford to banish all good from the universe 
because some rejoice in the evil. If they are, 
in some way, eliminated from the general prog- 
ress of humanity, it is because they refuse to 
accept the loving guidance of God. From the 
standpoint of Browning, optimism is of the 
day, and pessimism is of the night. 

Prof. Henry Jones gives us the following 
appropriate words: "But love in man is a sug- 
gestion of love without; a proof, in fact, that 
God is love, for man's love is God's love in 
man. The source of the pity that man shows, 
and the apparent evils in the world which ex- 
cite it, are the same. The Power which called 
man into being itself rises up in man against 
the wrongs in the world. The voice of the 
moral consciousness, approving the good, con- 
demning evil, and striving to annul it, is the 
voice of God, and has, therefore, supreme 
authority. We err, therefore, in thinking that 
it is the weakness of man which is matched 
against the mighty evil in the world, and that 
we are fighting a losing battle. It is an incom- 
plete, abstract and untrue view of the facts of 



676 CULTURA. 

life which puts God as irresistible power in the 
outer world, and forgets that the same irre- 
sistible power works, under the higher form of 
love, in the human heart." 

6. In philosophy, Browning was a follower 
of Kant and his successors. In some respects, 
he might be called a disciple of Hegel. While 
evolutionary science had some influence upon 
Browning, the ideals of the German school 
were much more attractive. The study which 
Kant and his successors gave to God and man, 
very much interested Mr. Browning. While 
he was a poet and not a philosopher, he did 
discuss, in his own way, all the great problems 
of life. Many hints towards their solution he 
found in the German idealistic philosophy. 

It has been claimed that Browning was an 
agnostic. It depends upon what you mean by 
agnostic. If you mean materialist and atheist. 
Browning was the opposite of agnostic. If you 
mean that great limitations must be put upon 
the knowledge of man, and that many of God's 
ways are past finding out, then Browning was 
an agnostic in the sense that Moses was an 
agnostic. Browning was an agnostic in the 
sense in which Paul was an agnostic; for with 



CULTURA. 677 

both the greatest thing in the world is love. 

7. In religion, Browning was a Christian 
Theist. He believed that God thinks and pos- 
sesses personality; he believed in a conscious 
God, who loves as man loves, and feels as man 
feels — only in a much higher sense. He did 
not identify material force with God; but be- 
lieved in a supreme will, who directs all the 
forces of this universe. Mr. Browning was the 
opposite of the atheist, for God was with him 
the supreme reality. He fully believed in the 
immanence of God, and that we live and move 
and have our being in him. 

Our poet believed that man has a con- 
science, which he defines in "Strafford" as *'the 
great beacon-light God sets in all." In "Christ- 
mas Eve," he further says: 

"The worst man upon earth . . . 
Be sure, he knows, in his conscience, more 
Of what right is, than arrives at birth 
In the best man's acts we bow before ; 
This last knows better — true, but my fact is, 
'Tis one thing to know, and another to practice." 

Mr. Browning thought that the acceptance 
of God in Christ furnished the highest motive 
to man to practice what he knew to be right. 
With Browning, religion was at the foundation 



678 CULTURA. 

of morality. Man needs religious inspiration 
to live right. John Ruskin expressed a great 
truth when he said, "The main thing to ask for 
is sight; there is light enough." 

Browning compares this life to a school in 
which we prepare for a higher life; he con- 
sidered this life a probation, and death as the 
means of passing to a higher state. In "The 
Ring and the Book," he says : 

"Life is probation, and the earth no goal 
But starting-point of man ; compel him strive, 
Which means, in man, as good as reach the goal." 

Our poet had such confidence in God and 
a future state that he did not fear death. In 
"Prospice" he asks, "Fear death?" 

"I was ever a fighter, so, one fight more. 

The best and the last ! 
I would hate that death bandage my eyes, 

And bid me creep past. 
No ! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers 

The heroes of old." 

This was written in 1864, about twenty-five 
years before the death of the poet. It is said 
that Browning's last line was published on the 
day of his death. It reads thus: 

"'Strive and thrive!' Cry 'Speed — fight on, forever 
There as here !' " 



CULTURA. 679 

These lines are found in the epilogue to 
"Asolando." 

In concluding this lecture on Browning, I 
wish to quote the following from Edward Ber- 
doe, author of the Browning Cyclopedia: 

"Evil thus becomes a stimulus to effort, and 
the sense of imperfection which exists only in 
man is due to that divine ray of light shining 
into his soul which comes from the Ah-Perfect. 
One of the greatest miracles wrought by Chris- 
tianity was the conversion of the Greek mind 
to the doctrine of the fall of man. The crea- 
tors of the Venus, the Apollo and the Antinous 
must have been hard to convince that man was 
imperfect, fallen from his high estate, and 
needing the sacrifice of the Son of God to re- 
store him. The imperfect had no attraction to 
the Greek mind; the wonder is all the greater 
that Paul ever succeeded in bringing it to the 
foot of the cross and convincing it of its need 
of redemption." 

Before closing I wish also to state that 
Browning identifies truth with God, for he says 
in "Parleyings with Faust and His Friends," 
"Truth is God." Such being the case, it is as 
natural to search for the truth as it is: to 



680 CULTURA. 

breathe. This is one of his proofs of the 
existence of God; for in 'The Ring and the 
Book/' he says: 

"There is nothing in nor out o* the woirld' 
Good except truth." 

On this question, he is very much in line of 
Hegel and Cousin. He agreed with the Christ 
that the truth will make you free. Browning 
believed that man has always been in search for 
the truth, and that there has always been in the 
world enough truth to save the man who would 
accept it. In "Sordello" he states that "every 
lie is quick with a germ of truth." Our poet 
believed in prayer, but he did not believe that 
man's will should be substituted for God's. In 
"Luria" he says : 

"All changes at His instantaneous will, 
Not by the operation of a law 
Whose maker is elsewhere at other work. 
His hand is still engaged upon His world — 
Man's praise can forward it, man's prayer suspend." 

Robert Browning used love as evidence of 
the existence of God. In "Christmas Eve" we 
have the following: 

"The loving worm within its clod 
Were diviner than a loveless God 
Amid his worlds." 



CULTURA. 681 

The meeting-place between God and man 
is, according to the poet, love. 

Mr. Joshua Kendall says, "Let me say here, 
that Browning has portrayed for us in the 
Grammarian, Rabbi Ben Ezra, Saul, in Capons- 
acchi and Pompilia, characters of richer ethical 
value, of finer and intenser spiritual fibre, than 
any that Shakespeare ever dreamed of." 

Mrs. Browning took some interest in Spirit- 
ualism, but Browning hated it. While not by 
any means one of Mr. Browning's great poems, 
"Mr. Sludge, the Medium," is certainly very 
interesting. Neither Sludge nor his patron, 
Hiram H. Horse fall, are in any sense lovable 
characters, but, like the Pharisees, they are not 
yet all dead. If it is interesting to study a 
bug, it ought to be of equally as great interest 
to study a humbug. 



CHAPTER IX. 
Alfred Tennyson and the Age of Reform. 

As long as the English language is spoken, 
the word-music of Tennyson will charm the 
ear, and when English has become a dead lan- 
guage his wonderful concentration of thought 
into luminous speech, the exquisite pictures in 
which he has blended all the hues of reflection, 
feeling and fancy, will cause him to be read as 
we read Homer, Pindar and Horace. — George 
Eliot 

No English poet, with the possible exception 
of Byron, has so ministered to the natural appe- 
tite for poetry in the people as Tennyson. 
Byron did this — unintentionally, as all genius 
does — ^by warning and arousing their dormant 
sentiment; Tennyson, by surprising them into' 
the recognition of a new luxury in the harmony 
and movement of poetic speech. — Bayard Taylor, 

The poet should be studied in relation to 
the age in which he lived. Shakespeare and the 
Elizabethan Age can not be separated. He is 
the greatest interpreter of the spirit and ten- 



CULTURA. 683 

dencies of that marvelous age, although he 
avoids the mention of the men and women who 
both lighted and blighted that great historic 
age. Milton was a true Puritan and quite per- 
fectly represented the Puritan Age. He was 
well suited to be associated with Cromwell. 
Byron and others well represented the age of 
revolution. When that age passed away, old 
things largely passed away, and all things be- 
came new. The nineteenth century was an age 
of reform, and Tennyson was one of its truest 
poets. While he was reasonably conservative 
and opposed dangerous extremes, still he was a 
true representative of the age of reform. 

He was born in 1809, the year of the birth 
of Darwin and Gladstone. He was a personal 
friend of Mr. Darwin, and a believer in evolu- 
tion, but he opposed all extreme tendencies in 
the theory. He once said to Mr. Darwin that 
evolution did not interfere with true religion, 
and Mr. Darwin fully agreed with him on the 
subject. 

At the age of twenty, Tennyson became a 
student in the University of Cambridge; and 
while there made rapid progress, but did not 
graduate. He formed associations there that 



684 CULTURA. 

had a marvelous influence upon his life. John 
F. Genung thus speaks of a society to which he 
belonged: "It would be of interest if we could 
transport ourselves back to the poet's college 
days, and be silent listeners at a symposium of 
that select conversazione society known at Cam- 
bridge as the 'Apostles,' where such young men 
as Alfred Tennyson, Arthur Henry Hallam, 
Richard Green, Archbishop Trench, Frederich 
Denison Maurice and Arthur Helps used to meet 
together to discuss the highest ideals of life/* 
These young men well represented an age of re- 
form ; for, in a very important sense, they were 
all reformers. 

The friendship between Arthur Hallam and 
Alfred Tennyson may be compared to that be- 
tween David and Jonathan. It was more than 
friendship; it was eternal love. Hallam spent 
much time at the Tennyson home, and was 
engaged to be married to Alfred's sister. The 
death of this friend in 1833 cast a gloom over 
the life of the poet, and he was practically 
silent for nine years. His sorrow, however, 
resulted in the production of "In Memoriam," 
one of the greatest poems of any age. 

1. "The Princess" and Educational Reform. 



CULTURA. 685 

After his father's death and until his marriage, 
Alfred Tennyson seems to have been something 
of a wanderer, without a settled home. It also 
appears that he was very much pressed finan- 
cially. In 1847 "The Princess" was published. 
Although it was much criticized, it greatly 
advanced the reputation of its author. I con- 
sider it a great work on educational reform, 
for it has counteracted the extreme position of 
those who would unsex woman, and advanced 
the true education of woman. It makes woman 
the true counterpart of man. 

"Woman is not undeveloped man, 
But diverse : could we make her as the man, 
Sweet Love were slain : his dearest bond is this, 
Not like to like, but like in difference. 
Yet in the long years liker must they grow ; 
The man be more of woman, she of man; 
He gain in sweetness and in moral height, 
Nor love the wrestling thews that throw the world: 
She mental breath, nor fail in childward care, 
Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind. 
Till at last she set herself to man, 
Like perfect music into noble words. 
And so these twain, upon the skirts of Time, 
Sit side by side, full-summ'd in all their powers. 
Dispensing harvest, swing the To-be, 
Self-reverent each and reverencing each. 
Distinct in individualities, 
But like each other ev'n as those who love." 



686 CULTURA. 

J. Cuming Walters truly says: "In his early 
poems he has given us a series of skilfully 
drawn pictures of women and many types of 
beauty, pictures upon which we could gaze with 
delight, but the prototypes of which we do not 
yearn to know. But in The Princess' he sets 
before us woman as she is, declares what she 
should aspire to, indicates her duty, informs us 
of her limits. 

"The bearing and the training of the child 
Is woman's wisdom/ 

"Tennyson once admitted, half regretfully, 
that the public did not see that the child was 
the heroine of the poem, not Princess Ida. The 
fate of Psyche's babe is the pivot upon which 
the whole story revolves. It is Psyche's babe 
who teaches Ida that she has a woman's heart, 
and such influence as a child may exercise, when 
all other influences fail, is revealed in the song 
beginning *Home they brought her warrior 
dead.' Women are not to be hard and inex- 
orable, are not to despise the love of worthy 
men, are not, indeed, to trust themselves in 
their journeying along life's rough byways. 
They must yield themselves to the stronger, 
trust themselves to the wiser, find support and 



CULTURA, 687 

protection in the enfolding arms of the mightier. 
Woman's part is 'sweet humility/ Her cause 
is man's: they rise or sink together." 

The prince, it appears to me, is greatly 
inferior to the princess. In the following 
lines he is at his best: 

"Each fulfills 

Defect in each, and always thought in thought. 
Purpose in purpose, will in will, they grow; 
The single, pure and perfect animal; 
The two-ceird heart beating, with one full stroke, Life.** 

Tennyson was an advocate of woman's 
rights in the true sense of the expression. He 
did not believe that a woman should be forced 
to marry for money, even if it would pay her 
father's debts. He advocated her legal rights, 
and was in favor of her highest education in 
harmony with her nature. He did not con- 
sider her an undeveloped man, and was much 
opposed to manly women, as well as womenly 
men. He believed in the true woman and the 
true man as the proper completion of human 
nature. He wrote "The Princess" only three 
or four years before his own marriage, and was 
doubtless at that time contemplating matrimony 
himself. He was thus well prepared tx) write 
"The Princess." 



688 CULTURA. 

2. Patriotism and Political Reform. Words- 
worth died in 1850, and a poet laureate had to 
be appointed. After a year's delay, Mr. Tenny- 
son was presented at Buckingham Palace to be 
crowned poet laureate. This was a great honor, 
and Alfred Tennyson well deserved it. Tenny- 
son was a great patriot, and this, he thought, 
made him more cosmopolitan in his ideas. He 
sincerely loved his country, and wanted it to 
be a blessing to the whole world. His "Ode on 
the Death of Wellington" breathes the most 
intense patriotism, and he so truly loved the 
Iron Duke because this great soldier and leader 
so sincerely loved his country. "The Charge 
of the Light Brigade" is also one of the most 
patriotic of odes. It is said that a New Eng- 
land preacher once quoted this ode in his pulpit, 
and was severely condemned by his officers and 
members for introducing profane poetry into 
his pulpit. Afterwards, an old soldier, who had 
belonged to the Light Brigade, and was also 
in the battle of Gettysburg, came to him and 
3aid : "I was all through the Crimea, and was in 
the thick of the fight at Gettysburg, but never 
until I heard you recite that poem in the chapel 
yesterday did I know what I had to thank God 



CULTURA. 689 

for. Sir, from that hour I determined to 
change my life, and I want to thank the man 
to whom I owe my salvation." 

Tennyson, like George Washington, was not 
favorable to party politics. He believed that 
patriotism should rise above all parties. He 
believed in political reform, but thought it 
should be accomplished by evolution, and not 
by revolution. He would not receive the rec- 
torship of the University of Glasgow from 
either the Conservatives or the Liberals. He 
would only accept it when offered independent 
of all party claims. He was a great friend of 
Mr. Gladstone, but more conservative than this 
distinguished statesman. He believed, how- 
ever, as firmly as did Mr. Gladstone in liberty 
and progress. 

3. "Maud" : Reform in both War and Peace. 
"Maud" was published in 1855, near the 
time of the breaking out of the Crimean War. 
It is a monodrama, and represents the poet at 
his best. As David Copperfield was Dickens' 
favorite child, so Maud was probably the fa- 
vorite child of Alfred Tennyson. Maud is a 
beautiful character and scarcely anywhere sur- 
passed. 



690 CULTURA. 

Some have criticized Tennyson as advoca- 
ting war in this poem. Tennyson was an advo- 
cate of peace, and believed the time would 
come when there would be a Parliament of the 
world and a Federation of peace. In "The 
Princess" he says: 

"I would the old god of war himself were dead, 
Forgotten, rusting on his iron hills, 
Rotting on some wild shore with ribs of wreck, 
Or like an old world mammoth bulk'd in ice, 
Not to be molten out." 

While our poet was a man of peace, he 
thought war better than stagnation. He 
thought war would remove despotism and other 
evils, and thus be the means of bringing about 
lasting peace. Like other great Englishmen, 
he feared that the Russian Bear might threaten 
the peace of the world and bring despotism to 
many nations. Poor Finland is now being de- 
prived of her ancient privileges by the mon- 
strous power. Anglo-Saxon civilization and 
Russian despotism will probably, some day, come 
into deadly conflict. It may be the battle of 
Armageddon, but I have no fear of the result. 
The Anglo-Saxon world will be able, on both 
land and sea, to meet the enemy at the proper 
time. It is war that saves civilization Tennyson 



CULTURA. 691 

advocated. He believed in reform in both war 
and peace. Since evil is in the world, man 

"Needs must fight 
To make true peace his own; 
He needs must combat might with right, 
Or Might would rule alone." 

It is probable that Maud is the most beauti- 
ful of Tennyson's conceptions: 

"Maud with her exquisite face, 
And wild voice pealing up to the sunny sky, 
And feet like sunny gems on an English green, 
Maud in the light of her youth and her grace, 
Singing of Death and of Honour that can not die." 

She is a vision of peace that will finally 
triumph in the world. Pure love is the most 
potential thing in the universe, and it will ulti- 
mately banish war and hatred. The one who 
represented the highest manifestation of God's 
love in this world, will bring peace to the 
world and goodwill to men. His kingdom will 
triumph over all opposing forces. 

4. "Enoch Arden" and the Purity of the 
Home. "Enoch Arden" was published in 1864. 
The poet had been married more than ten years, 
and was living at his beautiful home on the Isle 
of Wight. F. D. Maurice and other friends had 
visited him at his lovely island home. Marriage 



692 CULTURA. 

had a good influence upon Tennyson, and he 
felt like all other men who are happily married, 
that man is only half man until he has a good 
wife. The story of "Enoch Arden" is one of 
the noblest of Tennyson's poems, and one of the 
most pathetic in literature. It shows the trust, 
love and fidelity in humble life. When boys, 
Enoch Arden, the sailor's son, and Philip Hay, 
the miller's boy, loved beautiful little Annie Lee, 
the prettiest girl in the neighborhood. Philip 
was too shy, and on the principle that a faint 
heart never won a fair lady he was left behind. 
Enoch won the girl and married her. Years 
after, he went to sea and was shipwrecked on a 
lonely island, and was long thought to be dead. 
When both Annie and Philip felt fully satisfied 
that Enoch was no more, they got married. 
After they had been married a few years, 
Enoch was rescued and came home, but was in- 
formed by his landlady that his wife had mar- 
ried Philip. He would not make himself known 
to his wife and children, lest he would render 
them unhappy; but satisfied himself by looking 
at them through a window, and then keeping 
the secret until on his death-bed he revealed it 
to his landlady. Tennyson's description of his 



CULTURA. 693 

family, as Enoch saw them through the win- 
dow, is most touching. This poem is a high 
contribution to the purity of the home. J. C. 
Walters gives us the following interesting de- 
scription: "There is no comparison between 
Enoch and his rival Philip. The one is head- 
strong, impetuous, unyielding; the other is 
patient, submissive, gentle and complaisant. The 
one can brook no delay, tolerate no doubt — he 
is full of manly passion and ardour, and, until 
he has won his wife, unsatisfied. The other, 
though never reluctant or hesitating, can always 
wait, always subdue his feelings, always 
remain faithful and believe in the faith of 
others, Both men are heroes, both are men to 
admire, both the men of true heart and pure 
purpose, and yet they stand off in difference so 
mighty. Both men had their victory and de- 
feat, and, knowing the spirit of each, who shall 
say which triumphed the more? — Philip, with 
his wife, won by years of waiting, or Enoch, 
knowing his power, and dying in secret to save 
the woman he loved from a moment's regret?" 
5. Was Tennyson an Optimist? I, without 
any hesitation, answer this question in the af- 
firmative. He was a Christian, and I do not see 



694 CULTURA. 

how a Christian can be anything else. In his 
volume of 1842 "Locksley's Hall" is the leading 
poem; and Tennyson is at this time a very 
moderate optimist; for he looked upon things 
as out of joint. He, however, believed in God, 
and could say, "Yet I dowbt not through the 
ages one increasing purpose runs." No one can 
sincerely utter these lines and not be an 
optimist. 

"Locksley's Hall" should always be studied in 
connection with "Locksley's Hall Sixty Years 
After"; for the latter poem contains the poet's 
most mature experience. It is the most interest- 
ing poem in his volume of 1885. Some have 
claimed that the latter poem makes Tennyson a 
decided pessimist, but they are mistaken. After 
a somewhat extended discussion of evil, he re- 
turns to his optimism in the line, "Love will con- 
quer at the last." 

6. "The Idyls of the King" and Social Re- 
form. There are two kinds of authors ; one 
where the best work is written in early life, and 
the others are only modifications and enlarge- 
ments of the first; the other where early works 
are only indications of the growing fame of the 
author. Tennyson belongs to the latter class. 



CULTURA. 695 

Mr. J. C. Walters says: "For thirteen years, 
from 1859 to 1872, Tennyson was engaged in 
producing his sequence of stories from the 
noble history of King Arthur. The ten pieces 
were considered to form a perfect whole, until, 
in 1885, in the Tiresias volume, the episode of 
Balin and Balan was added. This piece was 
intended to be read as an introduction to Mer- 
lin and Vivien, and only by so reading it can 
its use and purpose be recognized. The poem 
also serves as a link between preceding lines 
where there was a faint whisper of Guinevere's 
imperfection, and those in which Vivien de- 
nounced the scandals of the Court. 

"Polluting, and imputing her whole self, 
Defaming and defacing, till she left 
Not even Lancelot brave, nor Galahad clean." 

What is an idyl? Many have doubted 
whether Tennyson was justified in using this 
term for his cycle of Arthur poems. "Idyllic" 
is scarcely the name to apply to the guilty loves 
of Lancelot and Guinevere, or the scandal- 
mongering of Vivien and the doting frailty of 
Merlin. An idyl is a picture of rustic peace, 
of sylvan beauty, of primitive simplicity — "a 
picture poem, Nature in the background, and in 



696 CULTURA. 

the foreground men and women of primitive 
manners and simple nobleness." Few of the 
Arthur poems, as Tennyson wrote them, are 
therefore idyls at all in the strictest sense; but 
the poet, no doubt, felt himself justified in using 
the term because he presented to us in a series 
of scenes the leading incidents in what, after 
all, is a great drama. The meaning and object 
of the poems are on the surface apparent; but 
below the surface there are not unlikely mys- 
teries of significance which few think of re- 
solving or even of searching for. Thus a New 
York critic has contended that the "Idyls" are 
not to be taken literally or historically, but al- 
legorically — that Arthur typifies the soul; the 
Round Table, the Body; Merlin, Wisdom; the 
Lady of the Lake, Religion; and the three 
Queens, Faith, Hope and Charity. What is 
more, this same critic received an autograph 
letter from Tennyson accepting his interpreta- 
tion. 

The family, the state and the church are 
divine organizations, intended by the Creator 
for the perfection of humanity. The "Idyls of 
the King" directly affect the family, the state 
and religion. They show how the misconduct of 



CULTURA. 697 

a few individuals in authority may corrupt a 
whole country. The kingdom of France, before 
the Revolution, became fearfully corrupt on ac- 
count of the impurity of the reigning family. 
English society was seriously affected by the 
shameful conduct of the court of Charles the 
Second. The "Idyls of the King" should 
greatly interest all persons engaged in social- 
reform work. Tennyson lived in an age of re- 
form, and he was a true representative of his 
age. 

7. "In Memoriam" and Religious Reform. 
"In Memoriam" was published in 1850. Seven- 
teen years had been given to its composition, 
and the time was certainly well spent. The death 
of the poet's most intimate friend resulted in the 
production of the greatest poem of its kind in any 
age. Dr. A. C. Bradley, of Oxford University, 
says: "This peculiar position of 'In Memoriam* 
seems to be connected with two facts. In the 
first place, it alone, among the most famous 
English elegies, is a poem inspired by deep per- 
sonal feelings. Arthur Hallam was a youth of 
extraordinary promise, but he was also 'dear 
as the mother to the son.' The elegy on his 
death, therefore, unlike those of Edward King 



698 CULTURA. 

or Keats or Clough, bears the marks of passion- 
ate grief and affection; and the poet's victory 
over sorrow, like his faith in immortality, is 
felt to have won in a struggle which has shaken 
the center of his being." 

From the standpoint of religion, Tennyson 
is a very interesting study. J. C. Walters says: 
"The Poet Laureate was a type of the age. He 
touched every note in the gamut of belief. His 
creed underwent much modification and change. 
He alternated between denials and affirmations, 
acceptances and rejections, faith and despair. 
But, with all his successive hopes and fears, his 
dismays and his doubts, his wavering convictions, 
assents and dissents, he was always craving 
after the highest good and searching for the 
surest truth. Man can not seize the robes of 
purity and excellence at once. He will follow 
phantoms and be deluded by imposture; and he 
has to profit by experience and pass through 
ordeals before the best opens unto him. Never 
to be satisfied until he had gained the topmost 
pinnacles and can gaze with purified vision 
upon the light, is his duty and his privilege. 
Tennyson's training, and the influences to which 
he was early subjected, inclined him from the 



CULTURA. 699 

first towards religion. His father and grand- 
father were clergymen, his mother was a woman 
of simple, fervent piety, his favorite was a man 
of most orthodox views. Tennyson's own ac- 
quaintance with the Bible was most remarkable. 
His poems contain upwards of 450 Scriptural 
references and parallelisms. He was imbued 
and permeated with Bible lore and Bible lan- 
guage. Some of his poems are veritable ser- 
mons — 'Aylmer's Field,' 'Sea Dreams,' The Two 
Voices,' 'Flower in the Crannied Nook.' 

"Yet such was his latitude and such the vary- 
ing state of his mind that he was claimed as a 
Christian and decried as a materialist and ag- 
nostic. This is due to the fact that Tennyson 
revealed, not concealed, his progressions from 
stage to stage; he has left the trace of his 
wandering along a winding way. Detesting 
ready-made dogmas, and despising second-hand 
opinions, he threaded his course through a laby- 
rinth of doubt and bewilderment, and only to- 
wards the end found the clue to happiness and 
the solution of mystery." 

Tennyson was a religious reformer; and 
could not receive the creeds of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries. He fully believed in the 



700 CULTURA. 

scientific view of God's immanence in nature and 
in man. He occupied much the same position 
of Ruskin on this subject. The poet saw ele- 
ments of truth in agnosticism; and while he 
strictly rejected materialism and atheism, he 
could accept the higher agnosticism. He was 
opposed to the old pantheism, as practically 
materialism; but he did believe in the higher 
pantheism that taught the existence of God and 
a future state. The existence of God and a 
future state were inseparably connected in the 
mind of Tennyson. He could not see how God 
could exist, and there not be a future state for 
man. The world and everything in it would be 
without purpose, if man does not live in the 
future world. Love was the largest w^ord in 
his religion, and he taught, especially in "In 
Memoriam," the doctrine of eternal love. He 
fully believed that those who loved us here will 
love us in the great unseen universe. Love is 
more potential than death, and it will finally 
triumph over it. We will meet our loved ones 
in the bright world beyond. 



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